Fraction of oceanic primary productivity contributed by oceanic cyanobacteria

Range ≤50 %
Organism Biosphere
Reference Whitehead L, Long BM, Price GD, Badger MR. Comparing the in vivo function of α-carboxysomes and β-carboxysomes in two model cyanobacteria. Plant Physiol. 2014 May165(1):398-411. doi: 10.1104/pp.114.237941 p.398 right column top paragraphPubMed ID24642960
Primary Source Liu HB, Nolla HA, Campbell L (1997) Prochlorococcus growth rate and contribution to primary production in the equatorial and subtropical North Pacific Ocean. Aquat Microb Ecol 12: 39–47 doi:10.3354/ame012039 doi:10.3354/ame012039 AND Liu HB, Landry MR, Vaulot D, Campbell L (1999) Prochlorococcus growth rates in the central equatorial Pacific: an application of the fmax approach. J Geophys Res Oceans 104: 3391–3399 link AND Field CB, Behrenfeld MJ, Randerson JT, Falkowski P (1998) Primary production of the biosphere: integrating terrestrial and oceanic components. Science 281: 237–240 DOI: 10.1126/science.281.5374.237 PubMed ID9657713
Method Primary source Li et. al, 1997, abstract: "Growth and mortality rates of Prochlorococcus were investigated at 2 stations in the equatorial Pacific, as well as Station ALOHA in the subtropical North Pacific Ocean." Primary source Li et. al, 1999, abstract: "Minimum daily growth rates of Prochlorococcus were estimated for the central equatorial Pacific (12°S–12°N, 140°W) during El Niño (February‐March 1992) and normal upwelling (August‐September 1992) conditions. Growth rate estimates were based on the percentages of cells in the S and G2 division phases at dawn (∼0700 LT) and dusk (∼1800 LT) as approximate values for ƒmin and ƒmax, respectively." Primary source Field et al., 1998, abstract: "Integrating conceptually similar models of the growth of marine and terrestrial primary producers yielded an estimated global net primary production (NPP) of 104.9 petagrams of carbon per year, with roughly equal contributions from land and oceans. Approaches based on satellite indices of absorbed solar radiation indicate marked heterogeneity in NPP for both land and oceans, reflecting the influence of physical and ecological processes."
Comments P.398 right column top paragraph: "Marine α-cyanobacteria live in very stable environments with high pH (pH 8.2) and dissolved carbon levels but low nutrients. They are characterized by small cells, very small genomes (1.6–2.8 Mb), and a few constitutively expressed carbon uptake transporters (BNID 117043). They have been described as low flux, low energy cyanobacteria with a minimal CCM (Badger et al., 2006). Although these species are slow growing, oceanic cyanobacteria contribute as much as one-half of oceanic primary productivity (primary sources), suggesting that they may contribute up to 25% to net global productivity every year."
Entered by Uri M
ID 117042