Primary production global distribution

Aselmann 1, Crutzen PJ. 1989. Global distribution of natural fresh-water wetlands and rice paddies their net primary productivity, seasonality and possible methane emissions. Journal of Atmospheric Chemistry 8 307-358. 

Other chapters in this volume have explored carbon cycles within and among ecosystems, especially their response to the global changes that are occurring on earth today. In this chapter, the focus shifts from factors that inlluence carbon flux dynamics to the ways in which the composition of the atmosphere and thermal environment influence the type of photosynthetic system that predominates within a terrestrial ecosystem. In turn, the kind of photo.synthetic. system present has signihcant impacts on the distribution of the grazing animals that are dependent on primary productivity generated acro.ss the land.scape, both in the. shortterm and over evolutionary time periods. 

Turning to Table I it is obvious that by far the largest share (75% according to Woodwell et al. 1978) in the global marine net primary production comes from the open oceans and hence from the phytoplankton in that system. It is at the same time remarkable that this production is out of proportion in relation to the phytoplankton biomass 26% of the total aquatic marine plant mass could be estimated in the open ocean. It should be realised that the distribution of phytoplankton in the sea is rarely uniform and frequently extremely patchy. Horizontally, patches are usually elliptical and vary in size from a few metres to hundreds of kilometres across. Long narrow bands or streaks, a few metres in width, are common and may form a pattern superimposed on that of the patches. Under conditions of strong mixing, vertical distribution of phytoplankton may be uniform, but if the water column becomes stabilised, non-motile forms denser than water will... 

Aselmann, 1. Cmtzen, P.J., 1989 Global Distribution of Natural Freshwater Wetlands and Rice Paddies, Their Net Primary Productivity, Seasonality and... 

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