Mapping size-specific phytoplankton primary production on a global scale

Since the formation of satellite-borne visible spectral radiometry (ocean colour), oceanographers have developed techniques to map phytoplankton biomass on a global scale, with a major application being to model primary production and the ocean carbon cycle in the context of climate change.However, we now recognise that marine carbon cycling links specifically to the activity of particular phytoplankton functional groups.From the perspective of primary production and the global carbon cycle, cell size is thought to be sufficient for defining these functional groups.This has led to a variety of bio-optical methods that use satellite data to differentiate between phytoplankton size classes.Here we combine an established phytoplankton size class algorithm which is integrated into an available-light primary production model in order to partition and map primary production estimates from microplankton (>20m) and combined nano-picoplankton (<20m) on a global scale for the year 2005.We estimate global primary production in 2005 to be 51.20 0.29 Gt C y -1 of which, combined nano-picoplankton contributes to 48.58 0.34 Gt C y -1 (94.8%) and microplankton 2.62 0.07 Gt C y -1 (5.2%).This approach can supply data for large-scale maps of size-specific primary production and an example of May and November 2005 is shown

Biology · Carbon cycle · Cartography · Geography · Nutrient · Physics · Phytoplankton · Picoplankton · Primary production · Remote sensing · Environmental Science · Isotope Analysis in Ecology · Marine and coastal ecosystems · Marine Biology and Ecology Research · Ecology · Geology · Oceanography

• Primary Production of the Biosphere

  Open Access•Christopher B Field, Michael J Behrenfeld et al.•Science•1998

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