Relationship between primary and export production in the boreal coastal zone of the North Atlantic

Data from the literature on long‐term, simultaneous measurements of total primary production ( P T ) and sedimentation of particulate organic C (POC) close to the bottom of the photic zone, i.e. the export production ( P E ), are compared. Sufficient data are available only from the boreal coastal zone of the North Atlantic. A regression analysis revealed that P E is positively and nonlinearly related to P T and a power model ( r 2 = 0.94) was chosen. Comparison with published models predicting the vertical flux of POC from the upper water column (bottom of the photic zone or 50‐m depth) revealed that they do not adequately predict P E on the basis of P T in boreal coastal environments. It is suggested that P E in the boreal coastal zone should be calculated with the equation P E = 0.049 P T 1.41 . The 〈 f 〉 ratio, i.e. the ratio of P E : P T characterizing lengthy time intervals and the regenerated production ( P r ) were calculated. Botht 〈 f 〉 and P r are positively, nonlinearly correlated with P T , and the upper limit for 〈 f 〉 is about 0.5 in boreal coastal environments. Solar radiation at various latitudes influences the relationships among P E , P r , 〈 f 〉 , and P T .