Exudation of organic carbon by marine phytoplankton: dependence on taxon and cell size

Abstract

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 477:53-60 (2013) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps10174 Exudation of organic carbon by marine phytoplankton: dependence on taxon and cell size Daffne C. López-Sandoval1,*, Tamara Rodríguez-Ramos1, Pedro Cermeño1,2, Emilio Marañón1 1Departamento de Ecología y Biología Animal, Universidad de Vigo, 36210 Vigo, Spain 2Present address: Instituto de Ciencias del Mar, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Passeig Maritim de la Barceloneta 37–49, 08003 Barcelona, Spain *Email: [e-mail] ABSTRACT: We determined the relationship between photosynthetic production of dissolved organic carbon (OC) and phytoplankton cell size and taxonomic composition in cultures of marine phytoplankton at 3 different growth stages. We measured OC exudation in 22 species belonging to 5 phyla and spanning >7 orders of magnitude in cell volume. The extracellular release of OC in our cultures represented on average ~2% of total carbon fixation, was not statistically different between growth stages, and was not correlated to cell size. The cell-specific OC exudation rate held an isometric relationship with cell size during the different growth phases (average slope: 0.95), which implies that general allometric models cannot be used to predict exudation in marine phytoplankton. KEY WORDS: Phytoplankton · Exudation · Cell size · Taxonomic affiliation · Organic carbon Full text in pdf format PreviousNextCite this article as: López-Sandoval DC, Rodríguez-Ramos T, Cermeño P, Marañón E (2013) Exudation of organic carbon by marine phytoplankton: dependence on taxon and cell size. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 477:53-60. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps10174 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 477. Online publication date: March 12, 2013 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2013 Inter-Research.