Emiliania huxleyi specific growth rate dependence on temperature

Abstract

A revised estimate of the relationship between the maximum growth rate (μmax, d-1) of Emiliania huxleyi and temperature (T, °C) was made using quantile regression and literature data from culture experiments (n = 1415). For modeling E. huxleyi bloom formation and coccolithophore functional group growth rate, this relationship is commonly assumed to follow an exponential relationship, as is the case for photosynthetic algal species in general. However, data specific to E. huxleyi show that this relationship is better described by a power function. Direct comparison with growth rate-temperature relationships used to model E. huxleyi from the literature shows that they overestimate growth rate by up to 250% over a wide range of temperatures. It is recommended that the revised relationship of μmax = 0.1419T 0.8151 be used in future models incorporating temperature-dependent maximum growth rate estimates of E. huxleyi and of coccolithophores as a functional group. © 2013, by the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, Inc.