EAS 1540 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Biogeochemistry, Phytoplankton, Chlorophyll
27 Jun 2016
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Document Summary
Primary production forms the base of marine food webs. Depends on the availability of essential plant nutrients. Biogeochemistry - how life in the ocean affects global elemental changes. Global carbon cycle - the difference between photosynthesis and respiration by all of the organisms is what sinks to the ocean floor. Plankton - small organisms that drift with ocean currents. Phytoplankton - small cells (often single, but sometimes chains or colonies) that contain chlorophyll and drift with ocean currents. Photosynthesis - chemical reaction that uses water and co2 and the energy of sunlight to form glucose and oxygen. Net primary production (npp) - the difference between the amount of co2 consumed by photosynthesis and the amount of co2 produced by respiration. It is the net gain or net loss of carbon within the cell. Primary production consumes co2 gas, and forms particulate organic carbon that can sink into the deep ocean, while making oxygen.
