Studies on a Calanus Patch II. The estimation of algal productive rates

Abstract

Algal productive rates have rarely been estimated at sea, although many estimates have been made of primary productivity as g carbon/m2/day. A distinction may be drawn between productive rate and productivity, and it is in the use of the term ‘standing stock’. The latter is the quantity of living algal material per unit volume or beneath unit surface. The productive rate is the rate at which the standing stock reproduces itself; for a given species it is of course a division rate. It is expedient to use the term ‘division rate’ for a single species, but the term ‘productive rate’ may be used for the whole algal community. The productivity is the product of standing stock and productive rate and so contains in it the very great variations of standing stock that are the common experience of all planktologists.