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LIGHT ABSORPTION AND QUANTUM YIELD FOR GROWTH IN FIVE SPECIES OF MARINE MACROALGA 1
Author(s) -
Markager Stiig
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
journal of phycology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.85
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1529-8817
pISSN - 0022-3646
DOI - 10.1111/j.1529-8817.1993.tb00279.x
Subject(s) - photosynthesis , absorption (acoustics) , irradiance , biology , quantum yield , yield (engineering) , botany , chlorophyll a , chlorophyll , materials science , optics , physics , fluorescence , metallurgy
Light utilization efficiency in five species of marine macroalgae was measured in laboratory growth experiments (13–41 days duration) at different irradiances at 7°C. All species acclimated to irradiance by changing their light absorption, resulting in a peak in light absorption between 2 and 15 μmol·m −2. s −1 . Light absorption increased with thallus‐specific chlorophyll and carbon content according to linear inverse relationships between chlorophyll content (chlarea −1 ) and log[transmission] and between log[carbon content, Carea −1 ] and log[transmission]. Quantum yields for light‐limited growth and estimated gross photosynthesis were calculated based on incident and absorbed light. Quantum yield for photosynthesis based on light absorbed by pigments was high (mean = 114 mmol C·mol −1 photons) and similar among the species. Quantum yield for net growth based on incident light was also high but more variable, between 22 and 75 mmol C·mol −1 photons. Differences among species were mainly due to differences in light absorption. In conclusion, all species acclimated to low light by increasing light absorption to the maximum attainable, and growth efficiencies based on absorbed light were close to the maximum theoretically possible.