Nutrient Limitation of Marine Photosynthesis

Abstract

Guided by insightful presentations at the previous Brookhaven Symposium (Bannister and Laws, 1980; Eppley, 1980; Goldman, 1980) we address here three questions that have challenged oceanographers for decades: 1) Can photosynthetic performance be used to diagnose the nutritional status of phytoplankton? 2) Should nutrients be incorporated into models of oceanic photosynthesis as a function of chlorophyll and light? and 3) How might we assess nutrient limitation of the specific growth rates or standing crop of phytoplankton in the ocean? We find that ambiguities thwart attempts to formulate robust generalizations. Accordingly, when it comes to nutrient limitation of marine photosynthesis, a good paradigm is hard to find.