Articles | Volume 12, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-12-561-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-12-561-2016
Research article
 | 
18 Apr 2016
Research article |  | 18 Apr 2016

Carbon-based phytoplankton size classes retrieved via ocean color estimates of the particle size distribution

Tihomir S. Kostadinov, Svetlana Milutinović, Irina Marinov, and Anna Cabré

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Short summary
Recent advances in ocean color remote sensing have allowed the quantification of the particle size distribution (and thus volume) of suspended particles in surface waters, using their backscattering signature. Here, we leverage these developments and use volume-to-carbon allometric relationships to quantify phytoplankton carbon globally using SeaWiFS ocean color data. Phytoplankton carbon concentrations are partitioned among three size classes: picoplankton, nanoplankton and microplankton.