Respiration and respiratory electron transport activity in marine phytoplankton: growth rate dependence and light enhancement
- 1 January 1992
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Journal of Plankton Research
- Vol. 14 (6) , 789-797
- https://doi.org/10.1093/plankt/14.6.789
Abstract
Respiratory electron transport system (ETS) activity and actual oxygen consumption rates were measured in batch cultures of four species of marine phytoplankton, in two different growth stages: exponential or log-phase (L) and stationary phase (S). The L cultures showed higher ETS activity and respiration rates than the S cultures of the same species. Among the L cultures, the higher respiration and ETS activity corresponded to those having higher growth rates. The carbon-specific ETS activity and the carbon-specific respiration (h−1) showed a clear dependence on growth rates. Samples subjected to short (10 min) exposures to high, oversaturating irradiances (1000 μE m−2 s−1) displayed enhanced ETS activity and respiration. The experiments show that, under the light regime at which the algal cells grow, the respiratory ETS activity and actual oxygen consumption in phytoplankton are strongly related to growth rate and that short, high irradiance exposures enhance both the respiratory enzyme activity and their actual oxygen consumption.Keywords
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