rf1+rph+rH=1. The quantum yields/energy efficiencies of these three deactivation processes take values that vary widely in different seas and at different times. They are especially strongly affected by the irradiance conditions in the sea, the trophic type of sea water and to a lesser extent the water temperature. This is borne out by the results of empirical studies of these processes by numerous authors in various sea regions, and also by their statistical and modelled generalizations. Many of these studies, however, refer to just one of these deactivation processes – photosynthesis (Koblentz-Mishke et al., www.selleckchem.com/products/CP-690550.html 1985, Morel, 1991, Antoine

et al., 1996, Antoine and Morel, 1996 and Ficek, 2001) or to the Sun-Induced Chlorophyll a Fluorescence (SICF) (e.g. Babin et al., 1995, Maritorena et al., 2000, Morrison, 2003, Huot et al., 2005 and Huot et al., 2007). In contrast, only a few papers give the results of experimental studies or statistical and model generalizations of the yields/efficiencies of all three processes. For example, the study

by Westberry & Siegel (2003), carried out in the north-western Sargasso Sea in 1992–1997, presents the results of simultaneous comprehensive empirical investigations (including the use of remote sensing methods) INK128 of all three processes. It provides valuable data on the long-term regularities governing changes in time and marine space, absolute values of the quantum yields of the three processes, and information on the interrelations among them in the context of the variability of environmental conditions in the Sargasso Sea. On the other hand, Ostrowska, 2011, Ostrowska, 2012a and Ostrowska, 2012b successively developed 5-Fluoracil manufacturer a preliminary but unique, semi-empirical, mathematical model describing the dependences of the quantum yields of the three processes on the three principal factors governing phytoplankton growth in the sea, namely, the surface chlorophyll a concentration Ca(0) (the trophic index of the sea water), the light conditions and the temperature at different

depths in the water. Universally applicable to the different environmental conditions obtaining in the sea, this model is a synthesis of earlier models of the photosynthesis and fluorescence of marine phytoplankton ( Woźniak et al., 1992, Woźniak et al., 2002, Woźniak et al., 2003, Woźniak et al., 2007, Ostrowska, 2012a and Ostrowska, 2012b). We will be using these models in the present study to calculate the yields and efficiencies of the expenditure of pigment molecule excitation energy and its distribution among the three processes in various typical conditions prevailing in seas and oceans. As we have already stated, the quantum yields and energy efficiencies of all three processes are strongly dependent on environmental factors.