Bonsang, B., Gros, V., Peeken, Ilka, Yassaa, N., Bluhm, Katrin, Zöllner, Eckart, Sarda-Esteve, R. and Williams, J. (2010) Isoprene emission from phytoplankton monocultures: the relationship with chlorophyll-a, cell volume and carbon content. Environmental Chemistry, 7 (6). p. 554. DOI 10.1071/EN09156.

Abstract

We report here isoprene emission rates determined from various phytoplankton cultures incubated under PAR light which was varied so as to simulate a natural diel cycle. Phytoplankton species representative of different phytoplankton functional types (PFTs) namely: cyanobacteria, diatoms, coccolithophorides, and chlorophytes have been studied. Biomass normalised isoprene emission rates presented here relative to the chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) content of the cultures showed that the two cyanobacteria (Synechococcus and Trichodesmium) were the strongest emitters with emission rates in the range of 17 to 28 mu g C(5)H(8) g(-1) Chl-a h(-1). Diatoms produced isoprene in a significantly lower emission range: 3 to 7.5 mu g C(5)H(8) g(-1) Chl-a h(-1) and Dunaliella tertiolecta was by far the lowest emitter of our investigated plankton cultures. Despite the group specific differences observed, a high emission rate variance was observed to occur within one phytoplankton group. However, a combination of literature and our own data showed a clear relationship between the actual cell volume and the isoprene emission rates. This relationship could be a valuable tool for future modelling approaches of global isoprene emissions.

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