Reassessment of the cell surface area limitation to nutrient uptake in phytoplankton

Marine Ecology Progress Series

My Ha Dao¹ 

关键词: Phytoplankton;    Nutrient uptake;    Growth rate;    Limitation;    Cell surface;    Cell volume;    Allometry;   

DOI  :  10.3354/meps10434

学科分类：海洋学与技术

来源: Inter-Research

【 摘 要 】

ABSTRACT: In many past theoretical and empirical studies of phytoplankton nutrient allometry, cell surface area has been considered the main limiting factor to nutrient uptake rates because of an assumption that the cell surface area is not large enough to accommodate enough uptake sites to meet the uptake demand. However, calculations in this paper show that the required uptake sites may only cover approximately 76% of the surface area of a typical phytoplankton cell. Cell volume could be the main factor controlling the maximum nutrient uptake rates of phytoplankton cells with a cell volume of <40 µm³, while the cell surface becomes limiting for larger cells. The maximum nutrient uptake rate of phytoplankton cells generally increases almost linearly with cell volume, and that of smaller cells increases faster than that of larger cells.

【 授权许可】

Unknown