Plankton photosynthesis

Oceanic biology is a sink for atmospheric CO2 because of the involvement of the aqueous form of this gas in planktonic photosynthesis. This complex process can be summarized by... 

Sedimentary lamination is also caused by the deposition of calcium carbonate and is important in most freshwater lakes where the clastic input from rivers is low. Carbonate deposits may be chemical or biogenic (see Box 1.1). As with phytoplanktonic production, the abiogenic (chemical) precipitation of calcium carbonate is seasonal, occurring during the warmer months. During this period carbon dioxide is removed from the water by planktonic photosynthesis, which causes water acidity to decrease and calcium carbonate to precipitate. From the equilibrium in Eqn 3.9c (Box 3.12) it can be seen that if the amount of C02(aq) decreases, more C02(aq) and carbonate are produced from bicarbonate, which increases the concentration of carbonate and promotes its precipitation. Subsequently, the water becomes more acidic and no longer supersaturated with respect to calcite (the main form of crystalline calcium... 

Consequences of Ozone Depletion. Ozone depletion over Antarctica is causing renewed concern about the consequences of increased levels of UV reaching the earth s biosphere. One area of concern involves the free-floating microscopic plants, known collectively as phytoplankton (the grass of the sea), which through the process of photosynthesis, fix carbon dioxide into living organic matter. Phytoplankton forms the basis of the marine food chain on which zooplankton (animal plankton) and all other components of the ecosystem depend for their sustenance. 

Ploug, H., Stolte, W., Epping, E. H. G. and Jorgensen, B. B. (1999). Diffusive boundary layers, photosynthesis, and respiration of the colony-forming plankton algae, Phaeocystis sp., Limnol. Oceanogr., 44, 1949-1958. 

This equation describes the ratios with which inorganic nutrients dissolved in seawater are converted by photosynthesis into the biomass of "average marine plankton" and oxygen gas 02. The opposite of this reaction is respiration, or the remineralization process by which organic matter is enzymatically oxidized back to inorganic nutrients and water. The atomic ratios (stoichiometry) of this reaction were established by... 

Likewise, the ability of the oceans to take in atmospheric carbon could be increased. Algae, plankton, and other organisms carry on photosynthesis as do green plants on land They take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen. In fact, about half of the oxygen we breathe is produced by these organisms. Experiments to fertilize plankton growth in the oceans have already been completed, but the method has not yet been implemented as a way to increase the ocean s carbon contents. 

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