Photosynthetic and respiratory rates, and phosphorus content of algae grown at different phosphate levels

Abstract

The photosynthetic and respiratory rates of phytoplankton are often used in models of marine productivity. It would be preferable to use cells reared under natural conditions when determining these rates, but it is not yet possible to culture unicellular algae under conditions even approximating to natural ones. The commonly used stagnant batch-cultures, shaking batch-cultures, chemostat cultures, and turbidostat cultures are therefore worth investigation to see what ranges of values are obtained for cells produced by these different methods.