ABSTRACT

Dinoflagellates are amongst the most abundant and diverse groups of plankton in surface waters and contribute to food web productivity and C:N:P biogeochemistry. Here we analyse the C:N:P of marine, autotrophic, planktonic dinoflagellates compiled from culture data from the scientific literature and test if dinoflagellate C:N:P differs from the Redfield ratio, and whether variability in C:N:P is associated with three traits: cell size, wall structure and toxin production. We find the average C:N:P of dinoflagellates is 90:12:1; higher in C:N, and lower in C:P and N:P than the canonical Redfield ratio. In aggregate the three traits examined here account for between 20–31% while taxonomic order accounts for between 37–38% of the variance in C:N:P. Smaller-sized and thecate taxa are higher in C:N, C:P and N:P than larger-size and athecate taxa. Species known to be able to produce C-rich toxins tend to be higher in C:P and N:P while species known to be able to produce N-rich toxins are lower in C:N, C:P and N:P relative to non-toxic species. These results indicate that any average estimate of dinoflagellate C:N:P will be influenced by the relative number of taxa with these traits.

摘要

甲藻是地表水中最丰富、最多样化的浮游生物群之一，有助于食物网生产力和 C:N:P 生物地球化学。在这里，我们分析了从科学文献中的培养数据汇编的海洋、自养、浮游甲藻的 C:N:P，并测试甲藻 C:N:P 是否与 Redfield 比率不同，以及 C:N:P 的变异性是否相关具有三个特征：细胞大小、壁结构和毒素产生。我们发现甲藻的平均 C:N:P 为 90:12:1；C:N 比标准红场比高，C:P 和 N:P 比标准红场比低。总的来说，这里检查的三个性状占 20-31%，而分类顺序占 C:N:P 方差的 37-38%。在 C:N、C:P 和 N:P 中，较小尺寸和无角分类群的含量高于大尺寸和无角分类群。已知能够产生富含 C 毒素的物种的 C:P 和 N:P 含量往往较高，而已知能够产生富含 N 毒素的物种的 C:N、C:P 和 N:P 相对较低对无毒物种。这些结果表明，任何对甲藻 C:N:P 的平均估计都会受到具有这些特征的分类群的相对数量的影响。