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REVIEW article

Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Biogeochemistry
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1466072
This article is part of the Research Topic The Biological Pump: A Hunt For Microbial Key Players Involved in Ocean Carbon and Nutrient Fluxes View all articles

Phytoplankton carbon to chlorophyll a model development: A review

Provisionally accepted
Jun Sun Jun Sun *Jiang Gui Jiang Gui
  • State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Wuhan 430074, China, Wuhan, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The cellular carbon content and chlorophyll a (Chl a) concentration are two of the most significant indices for assessing phytoplankton biomass. Recording and monitoring these biomasses are essential tasks in phytoplankton research, and the carbon-to-chlorophyll a (C:Chl a) ratio serves as a crucial conversion tool between them. Although the C:Chl a ratio varies widely, it is influenced by external environmental factors, making modeling studies of C:Chl a particularly important.This paper provides an overview of the historical development of the C:Chl a model, beginning with early empirical models and progressing to the development of mechanistic models. This discussion is followed by an examination of existing gaps and future challenges in current C:Chl a modeling, particularly the potential underestimation of carbon biomass in existing C:Chl a models for dinoflagellates exhibiting multiple growth strategies. Finally, it is suggested that future C:Chl a models should strive to achieve a balance between reliability and applicability.

    Keywords: Phytoplankton, Carbon to chlorophyll a ratio, empirical model, mechanistic model, environmental regulation

    Received: 02 Aug 2024; Accepted: 10 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Sun and Gui. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jun Sun, State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Wuhan 430074, China, Wuhan, China

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