Dissolved Organic Carbon from Phytoplankton

Abstract

Dissolved organic carbon is a huge carbon pool in the sea making up some 700 gigatons [1] according to conservative estimates. The concentration is not constant throughout the oceans; rather changing throughout the year, ac- cording to depth and latitude. The DOC in deep water is old (3000–6000 years) and refractory [2]. This points to the fact that a large part of the DOC in the ocean is very fragile.However, in the newer literature, many reports have dealt with the labile part,which may vary from a few to perhaps 35% of the total DOC [3–5].