Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
5
Phytoplankton Carbon Stock
…
Oh ! phytoplankton green and tiny
Iron fertilization makes you more shiny
Absorb more carbon dioxide as you can
And save the Planet Earth from GHG emission
…
The Authors
sophisticated laser or image analysis technologies
are becoming increasingly available. However,
these methods are not yet fully developed, and
many researchers still use the conventional light-
microscope-based biovolume estimates. Biovo-
lume is also used for the conversion of cell counts
into carbon units in studies of
5.1
Marine and Estuarine
Phytoplankton: Assessment
and Distribution
Phytoplankton, the free-
fl
oating tiny microscopic
uxes of organic
matter in aquatic communities. Calculating phy-
toplankton carbon from biovolume rather than
from particulate organic carbon eliminates the
error due to detrital particulate matter contained in
particulate organic carbon. Only a few attempts
have been made to standardize the calculation of
algal biovolume, and different researchers used
different sets of equations to estimate the biovo-
lume of phytoplankton. The matching of geo-
metric shapes with phytoplankton structure
requires careful attention, and the problem
becomes acute for complex-shaped genera such
as dino
fl
fl
oral particles, demonstrate a wide range of
shapes and vary over several orders of magnitude
in size, from submicron species such as the
picoplanktonic prochlorophytes to diatoms mea-
suring more than 1 mm in diameter. In mixed-
pieces samples, high numbers of extremely small-
sized species might actually contribute only a
minor fraction of the overall biomass, whereas
other, larger-sized species that are much less
abundant in numbers might dominate the overall
biomass. Thus, cell counts per se are inadequate
as a measure of relative algal biomass. Several
conventional biomass-related parameters, such as
particulate organic carbon, ATP, or chl
agellates, gomphonemoid diatoms and
desmids. In this chapter, we aim to provide a set of
geometric shapes and mathematical equations for
calculating algal biovolume and stored carbon in
dominant phytoplankton of
fl
a
, are
known to vary signi
cantly with environmental
conditions, such as light and nutrient availability.
Even the salinity of the aquatic system in
uences
the biomass of phytoplankton species, although
the effect is species speci
fl
tropical estuarine
system.
c. Thus, these param-
eters are not very perfect to differentiate between
the contributions of different taxonomic groups
and cannot be used to compare different species in
a mixed assemblage or the same species under
different environmental conditions. The most
commonly used traditional biomass estimate
for microalgae is cell biovolume, which is
calculated from microscopically measured linear
dimensions. Automated or semi-automated
techniques for estimating algal biovolume using
5.1.1 Microscopic Method
Phytoplankton are free-
oating microscopic uni-
cells and colonies that thrive luxuriantly in the
photic zone of the ocean, estuaries and other
aquatic systems. They are the key players
in maintaining the nutrient and energy
fl
fl
ow
through marine
and estuarine
food webs.
