Carbon-centric dynamics of Earth's marine phytoplankton.

ABSTRACT: Marine phytoplankton are fundamental to Earth's ecology and biogeochemistry. Our understanding of the large-scale dynamics of phytoplankton biomass has greatly benefited from, and is largely based on, satellite ocean color observations from which chlorophyll-a (Chla), a commonly used proxy for carbon biomass, can be estimated. However, ocean color satellites only measure a small portion of the surface ocean, meaning that subsurface phytoplankton biomass is not directly monitored. Chla is also an imperfect proxy for carbon biomass because cellular physiology drives large variations in their ratio. The global network of Biogeochemical (BGC)-Argo floats now makes it possible to complement satellite observations by addressing both these issues at once. In our study, we use ~100,000 water-colum

SUBMITTER: Stoer AC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11551431 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature