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JPR Advance Access originally published online on November 29, 2007
Journal of Plankton Research 2008 30(2):165-181; doi:10.1093/plankt/fbm098
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Functional links between bioenergetics and bio-optical traits of phytoplankton taxonomic groups: an overarching hypothesis with applications for ocean colour remote sensing

Jim Aiken1,2,*, Nick J. Hardman-Mountford1,2, Ray Barlow3, James Fishwick1,2, Takafumi Hirata1,2 and Tim Smyth1

1 Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Prospect Place, Plymouth PL1 3DH, UK 2 Centre for Observation of Air–Sea Interactions and Fluxes, Prospect Place, Plymouth PL1 3DH, UK 3 Marine and Coastal Management, Rogge Bay 8012, Cape Town, South Africa

* CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: ja{at}pml.ac.uk

Received on September 11, 2007; accepted on November 26, 2007


  Abstract

We review the concept of phytoplankton functional types (PFTs) in marine ecosystems as a means of advancing bio-mechanistic models that can be coupled to the global carbon cycle and the Earth's climate system. Conventional classification of phytoplankton by size may seem arbitrary, but there appears clear links between size and environmental characteristics (availability of essential nutrients and light) that regulate photosynthesis, phytoplankton selection and succession. Taking a minimalist approach, small phytoplankton (picoplankton) survive in permanently stratified systems with low nutrients, high surface light and low light in deep clines, whereas large phytoplankton (microplankton) thrive in high nutrient, turbulent, high light, near surface systems. Nutrient-light environmental conditions are characteristic properties of globally, latitudinal-dispersed biogeochemical provinces. These contrasting nutrient-light regimes define the extreme ends of the bio-energetic scale of photosynthesis and set the end points of the primary range of phytoplankton functional processes. To determine PFTs from remotely sensed ocean colour data, there must be a specific bio-optical trait (BOT) that can be associated with the phytoplankton species or taxa. We investigate the connection of the bio-energetic scale to phytoplankton types and their BOTs, which is the first, but crucial step for classifying PFTs on the basis of functional processes, from which refinements and further partitioning can be developed.

Communicating editor: K.J. Flynn


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