The Relationship between Phytoplankton Annual Carbon Production and New Nitrogen Production

Abstract

Phytoplankton annual carbon production is a linear function of new production, estimated from data obtained with nitrogen methods, and of export production, estimated from measurements of sediment-trap carbon flux. A plot of the f ratio as a function of total phytoplankton production, obtained using the linear new production equation, increased nonlinearly to an asymptotic value. The plot of percent new production obtained by Eppley and Peterson (1979) from six data values is a good approximation to the curve derived from the new production equation obtained with 41 values. Data on ¹⁴C production in the Sargasso Sea and new, nitrogen production data pairs were distributed along the linear regression line, with average new production estimated from oxygen data in agreement with average new production estimated from nitrogen measurements.