Journal of Tropical Oceanography ›› 2010, Vol. 29 ›› Issue (2): 33-38.doi: 10.11978/j.issn.1009-5470.2010.02.033cstr: 32234.14.j.issn.1009-5470.2010.02.033

• Marine Optics • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effects of algal cell structure on the optical properties of phytoplankton

ZHOU Wen1, CAO Wen-xi1, LI Cai1, WANG Gui-fen1, SUN Zhao-hua1, ZHAO Jun1,2   

  1. 1. LED, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510301, China; 2. Graduate Univ. of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 10039, China
  • Received:2009-05-06 Revised:2009-11-10 Online:2010-03-23 Published:2010-03-23

Abstract:

The algal cells were first simplified as two-layer structure consisting of cytoplasm and chloroplast, and based on Aden-Kerker theory, the influence of physical properties of algal cells on their optical properties was then discussed. The results were also compared with the optical properties of homogenous spherical algal cells. They showed that, compared to homogenous spherical cell structure, the cell structures with chloroplast as outer would enhance the backscattering efficiency factor and backscattering ratio, while the cell structure with chloroplast as core would reduce the absorption efficiency due to package efficiency; For the algal cells with chloroplast as outer, the variations of cell size, relative chloroplast volume and the imaginary part of refractive index of chloroplast would have important influence on absorption efficiency of algae; both cell size and the real part of refractive index of chloroplast were the two key factors for backscattering efficiency and backscattering ratio of algae.

Key words: cell structure, two-layer sphere, Aden-Kerker theory, phytoplankton, optical property