A knowledge of the allometry of algal growth and respiration can be applied to biomass-size distribution models which are in turn used in the prediction of fish yield and ecosystem studies. However, the scaling exponents reported in the literature are variable. This variation may be attributed to differences in the expression of cell size and phylogeny, but could also reflect small sample size which underlie most published regressions. This thesis establishes the allometry of algal growth and respiration based on a larger sample taken from the literature, and evaluates the effects of differences in gross taxonomy and in the expression of cell size on these relations. Allometric relations based on cell carbon appear more consistent with relations from other taxa than those based on cell volume, reflecting the size dependence of algal elemental composition which does not occur in most other taxa. The allometric relation of algal respiration (R in pl O$ rm sb2 cdot cell sp{-1} cdot hr sp{-1})$ was found to be R = 0.030C$ sp{0.93}$ where C is cell carbon content in pg C$ rm cdot cell sp{-1}$. Among the 6 divisions studied (Chlorophyta, Chrysophyta, Cyanophyta, Euglenophyta, Pyrrophyta, Rhodophyta), chlorophytes, euglenophytes and rhodophytes exhibited different respiration-size relation but separate relations were not developed for each of those groups due to patterns in residuals or small sample sizes. The specific rate of algal growth ($ mu$ in divisions$ cdot$day$ sp{-1}$) also depends on size and it is found to be $ mu$ = 3.45C$ sp{-0.21}.$ All taxa studied here (Chlorophyta, Chrysophyta, Pyrrophyta) have similar scaling exponents for growth but Pyrrophyta have significantly lower growth rates than other algae of similar size.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.22815 |
| Date | January 1995 |
| Creators | Tang, Evonne P. Y. (Evonne Pui Yue) |
| Contributors | Peters, Robert H. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Biology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001462760, proquestno: MM05639, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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