Resource limitation alters the 3/4 size scaling of metabolic rates in phytoplankton

By Z. Finkel, A. Irwin, Oscar Schofield. 2004

178 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Under optimal growth conditions, many metabolic rates scale to the 3 ⁄4 power of mass. We show that resource limitation can alter this size scaling of metabolic rates if resource acquisition depends on organism size. A prime example of size-dependent resource acquisition is light harvest- ing by phytoplankton. The size-dependence of light acquisition causes a deviation in the 3 ⁄4 size scaling of growth and photosynthetic rates under growth-limiting irradiance. The degree of deviation from the 3 ⁄4 size-scaling exponent depends on the size-dependence of physiological acclimation in response to resource limitation. Phytoplankton acclimate to light limitation by changes in pigment concentration. We calculate the pigment concentration required to maximize photosynthetic rate, and predict that the light-limited photosynthetic rate must scale to the 2 ⁄3 power of cell volume. These theoretical results are consistent with the size scaling of pigment concentration and photosynthetic rate of phytoplankton cultures. Our results suggest that deviation from the 3 ⁄4 size-scaling exponent for metabolic rate under resource-limiting conditions is the consequence of the size-dependence of both resource acquisition and physiological acclimation to resource availability.

Subfields: Ecology, Environmental Chemistry, Oceanography

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/84826dc466629247a0c3fe5326b23857788ec867

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Citations in the corpus

Beyond the ‘3/4‐power law’: variation in the intra‐and interspecific scaling of metabolic rate in animals (2005, unknown): “Apparently the scaling of photosynthetic rate in phytoplankton depends on light intensity (Finkel et al., 2004).”
The strain concept in phytoplankton ecology (2009, background): “As discussed above, individual cells can adapt to changing conditions by reversible regulation of their metabolic capabilities (Staehr and Birkeland, 2006; Geider et al., 1998; Finkel et al., 2004).”
Temperature and the size of freshwater phytoplankton (2020, background): “, less intracelullar self-shading of chloroplasts (Finkel, 2001; Finkel et al., 2004; Malerba et al., 2018).”
Photosynthesis and respiration in marine phytoplankton: Relationship with cell size, taxonomic affiliation, and growth phase (2014, background): “In some cases, the values of b obtained were lower than 3/4, which implied a stronger decrease of metabolic rates with increasing cell size (Finkel et al., 2004), whereas in other studies b was higher than 3/4, indicating a smaller degree of size-dependence (Banse, 1976; Lewis, 1989).”
Large-sized phytoplankton sustain higher carbon-specific photosynthesis than smaller cells in a coastal eutrophic ecosystem (2005, background): “Unfortunately, the interpretation of the chlorophyll a-normalised photosynthesis depends on the carbon-to-chlorophyll a ratio, which has been reported to vary with environmental conditions, cell size and phyletic affiliation (Taylor et al. 1997, Finkel et al. 2004).”
Picophytoplankton : Bottom-up and top-down controls on ecology and evolution (2005, unknown): “It is thus predicted, and observed, that the allometric coefficient b is smaller (more negative) in light-limited than in resource-saturated growth of phytoplankton organisms (Finkel & Irwin 2000, Finkel 2001, Finkel et al. 2004).”
Light and growth in marine phytoplankton: allometric, taxonomic, and environmental variation (2015, background): “This leads to the prediction that whole-cell photosynthetic rate under strong light limitation should increase with cell volume to the power of 2/3 (Finkel et al. 2004).”
Phytoplankton blooms: a ‘loophole’ in microzooplankton grazing impact? (2005, background): “The English Channel data seem to indicate that light limitation may play a more important role than nutrients on the final size structure (Finkel et al., 2004).”
Increasing importance of small phytoplankton in a warmer ocean (2010, unknown): “3 but they can be relevant (Finkel et al., 2004).”
Scaling-up from nutrient physiology to the size-structure of phytoplankton communities (2006, background): “Resource limitation by light or nutrient availability can alter the size scaling of metabolic rates, resulting in a decrease in the size-scaling exponent (Finkel, 2001; Finkel et al., 2004).”
Optimal phytoplankton cell size in an allometric model (2009, unknown): “In our model, as in Finkel et al. (2004), actual growth rates depart from the rate of biomass synthesis because of resource limitation.”