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JOURNAL OF PLANKTON RESEARCH | VOLUME 3 | NUMBER 3 | PAGES 421-431 | 1981
© Oxford University Press

research-article

On limiting nutrient patchiness and phytoplankton growth: a conceptual approach

David H. Turpin1,2, John S. Parslow3 and Paul J. Harrison2

Department of Oceanography, The University of British Columbia Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6T 1W5

Received on January 1, 1980; accepted on March 1, 1981

A theoretical framework is developed to explore the effects of limiting nutrient patchiness on phytoplankton growth. Growth rate is represented as a function of the average ambient substrate concentration in the medium, the degree of patchiness and the patch duration. Phytoplankton growth, in relation to the external substrate concentration, is mediated by the cell quota for the limiting nutrient.

Two general conclusions can be drawn from this study. First the degree of patchiness in the environment can affect individual growth rates and thus alter community structure even though there is no change in the average ambient nutrient concentration. Second, for patch-adapted populations, the apparent Ks for growth can be lowered significantly by making the distribution of the limiting nutrient patchy with respect to time. The insights which this model provides into future experimental methodologies are also discussed.

1 Address for reprints

2 also Dept. Botany

3 also Institute of Applied Mathematics


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J. T. LEHMAN and D. SCAVIA
Microscale Patchiness of Nutrients in Plankton Communities
Science, May 14, 1982; 216(4547): 729 - 730.
[Abstract] [PDF]


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