Influence of light and temperature on the photosynthetic rate of marine benthic diatoms

✍ Scribed by F. Colijn; G. Buurt

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag
• Year: 1975
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 551 KB
• Volume: 31
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0025-3162
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00387148

✦ Synopsis

The influence of light and temperature on photosynthetic rate as measured by cl402-fixation of marine benthic diatoms was investigated, using both intact sediment samples (Marshall et al., 1973) and suspensions of diatoms harvested by a lenstissue technique (Eaton and Moss, 1966). After Cl4-incubation, sediment samples were filtered, burned in a sample oxidizer, and their activity determined in a liquid scintillation counter. Photosynthetic rate of mixed field populations is saturated by a light intensity of approximately iO,000 lux; at still higher light intensities no photoinhibition was found. In contrast to the mixed field populations, unialgal cultures of the benthic diatom Amphiprora alata K~tz. exhibited strong photoinhibition at higher light intensities (i0,000 to 60,000 lux). Within a range of 4o to 20oc, the photosynthetic rate increased about IO%/C o. No differences in photosynthetic pattern were observed between epipelic and epipsammic species.