Equations Redfield ratio

Figure 15.7. Stoichiometric correlations among nitrate, phosphate, oxygen, sulfide, and carbon. The correlations can be explained by the stoichiometry of reactions such as equation 3 concentrations are in micromolar, (a) Correlation between nitrate nitrogen and phosphate phosphoms corrected for salt error in waters of the western Atlantic, (b) Correlation between nitrate nitrogen and apparent oxygen utilization in same samples. The points falling off the line are for data from samples above 1000 m (Redfield, 1934, p. 177). (c) Correlation between nitrate nitrogen and carbonate carbon in waters of the western Atlantic, (d) Relation of sulfide sulfur and total carbonate carbon in waters of the Black Sea. Numbers indicate depth of samples. Slope of line corresponds to AS /AC = 0.36. (From data of Skopintsev et al., 1958, as quoted in Redfield et al., 1966.) (e) Correlation of the concentration of nitrogen to phosphate in the Atlantic Ocean (GEOSECS data). The slope through all the data yields an N/P ratio close to 16.

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