Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

SS36 Dealing With Scales in Aquatic Ecology: Structure and Function in Aquatic Ecosystems (Spatial and Temporal Connections)

Date: Tuesday, February 13, 2001, Time: 12:00:00 PM

Location: San Miguel

Johnson, Z, , UCAR / MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA, zij@mit.edu

MULTIPLE PHYTOPLANKTON SPECIES EXHIBIT POWER LAW SCALING IN PHOTOACCLIMATIVE RESPONSE THAT IS SUGGESTIVE OF FRACTAL PHOTOSYNTHETIC ANTENNA GEOMETRY

Light intensity varies several orders of magnitude from the surface to base of the euphotic zone. Phytoplankton have multiple mechanisms to acclimate to these different intensities including modifications of both aggregate and photosystem-specific pigmentation and absorption properties. Although the dominant photoacclimation mechanism varies among species, all taxonomies investigated here including both field samples and laboratory cultures of prokaryotic and eukaryotic phytoplankton exhibit power law scaling in component and aggregate photoacclimative responses (ex. chlorophyll/cell vs. growth irradiance). These observations are analyzed in the context of a generalized power law model of physiology that supports a fractal geometry for photosynthetic antenna. Independent empirical and theoretical studies have shown that fractal shaped patterns are highly efficient receptors of electromagnetic radiation (ex. light). Furthermore, because fractal geometries are self-repeating, they may be easily encoded. These properties may suggest why overall photoacclimative responses follow power law scaling for a broad range of phytoplankton taxonomies despite different dominant component mechanisms.

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Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

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