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Scientific Correspondence
Nature 388, 132 (10 July 1997) |
Photosynthesis or planktonic respiration?
Richard J. Geider1
Abstract
The nutrient-poor (oligotrophic) regions of the open ocean cover 30% of the Earth's surface. Microscopic plants (phytoplankton) living in this habitat account for about 10% of global CO2fixation1. Most of this organic production is rapidly respired within a microbial food web dominated by photosynthetic bacteria, heterotrophic bacteria and small (<5 
m diameter) protozoa and algae, with a small amount (about 1% of global co2fixation) being exported from nutrient-poor upper ocean regions to the interior of the ocean2,3. Thus, on average, photosynthesis exceeds respiration in the sunlit 'euphotic' zone of the oligotrophic ocean. This view appears to have been challenged by del Giorgio and co-workers4.
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