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Bacterial Biovolume and Biomass Estimations
Open accessAbstract
The biomass of bacterial populations in aquatic ecosystems is often estimated by measuring bacterial biovolume and converting this into biomass in terms of carbon. A reliable conversion factor relating the measured bacterial biovolume to bacterial carbon content is essential for this approach. Based on direct measurements of bacterial cell carbon content, cell number, and biovolume, I have derived an average conversion factor of 5.6 × 10 −13 g of C μm −3 . This conversion factor is 3.4 to 6.6 times higher than most theoretically derived factors currently in use. Both bacterial biomass and bacterial production in aquatic ecosystems may thus have been seriously underestimated.
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Cited by
Oremland, R. S., Hollibaugh, J. T., Maest, A. S., Presser, T. S., Miller, L. G., & Culbertson, C. W. (1989) · Applied and Environmental Microbiology · doi:10.1128/aem.55.9.2333-2343.1989 · Cited by 364
Vrede, K., Heldal, M., Norland, S., & Bratbak, G. (2002) · Applied and Environmental Microbiology · doi:10.1128/aem.68.6.2965-2971.2002 · Cited by 331
Self-citation2 Direct Methods and Biomass Estimation
Fry, J. C. (1990) · Methods in Microbiology · doi:10.1016/s0580-9517(08)70239-3 · Cited by 314
Bacterioplankton Roles in Cycling of Organic Matter: The Microbial Food Web
Fuhrman, J. (1992) · Primary Productivity and Biogeochemical Cycles in the Sea · doi:10.1007/978-1-4899-0762-2_20 · Cited by 269
Occurrence of bacterivory in Cryptomonas, a common freshwater phytoplankter
Tranvik, L. J., Porter, K. G., & Sieburth, J. M. (1989) · Oecologia · doi:10.1007/bf00378736 · Cited by 132
Metadata
- Authors
- Bratbak, G.
- Venue
- Applied and Environmental Microbiology
- Publisher
- American Society for Microbiology
- Published
- 1985-06
- Volume
- 49
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1488-1493
- ISSN
- 0099-2240 (ISSN-L)
- 1098-5336
- OpenAlex
- W1603719451
- Cited by
- 496
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 36.34
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
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