Photosynthesis–irradiance parameters of marine phytoplankton: synthesis of a global data set

• Main Authors: H. A. Bouman, T. Platt, M. Doblin, F. G. Figueiras, K. Gudmundsson, H. G. Gudfinnsson, B. Huang, A. Hickman, M. Hiscock, T. Jackson, V. A. Lutz, F. Mélin, F. Rey, P. Pepin, V. Segura, G. H. Tilstone, V. van Dongen-Vogels, S. Sathyendranath
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2018-02-01
• Series: Earth System Science Data
• Online Access: https://www.earth-syst-sci-data.net/10/251/2018/essd-10-251-2018.pdf
• ISSN: 1866-3508; 1866-3516

The photosynthetic performance of marine phytoplankton varies in response to a variety of factors, environmental and taxonomic. One of the aims of the MArine primary Production: model Parameters from Space (MAPPS) project of the European Space Agency is to assemble a global database of photosynthesis–irradiance (<i>P</i>-<i>E</i>) parameters from a range of oceanographic regimes as an aid to examining the basin-scale variability in the photophysiological response of marine phytoplankton and to use this information to improve the assignment of <i>P</i>-<i>E</i> parameters in the estimation of global marine primary production using satellite data. The MAPPS <i>P</i>-<i>E</i> database, which consists of over 5000 <i>P</i>-<i>E</i> experiments, provides information on the spatio-temporal variability in the two <i>P</i>-<i>E</i> parameters (the assimilation number, <i>P</i>_<i>m</i>^<i>B</i>, and the initial slope, <i>α</i>^<i>B</i>, where the superscripts <i>B</i> indicate normalisation to concentration of chlorophyll) that are fundamental inputs for models (satellite-based and otherwise) of marine primary production that use chlorophyll as the state variable. Quality-control measures consisted of removing samples with abnormally high parameter values and flags were added to denote whether the spectral quality of the incubator lamp was used to calculate a broad-band value of <i>α</i>^<i>B</i>. The MAPPS database provides a photophysiological data set that is unprecedented in number of observations and in spatial coverage. The database will be useful to a variety of research communities, including marine ecologists, biogeochemical modellers, remote-sensing scientists and algal physiologists. The compiled data are available at <a href="https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.874087" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.874087</a> (Bouman et al., 2017).