The Control of Marine Phytoplankton. Use of Quine's View of “Object” in Assessing Productivity and Control

Abstract

AbstractThe identifiable phytoplankton species between New Zealand and Hawaii can be divided into the fraction that grows readily under improved conditions, composed of diatom species plus Coccolithus huxleyi and Gephyrocapsa oceanica, and the complementary fraction of other species that do not so grow. Samples containing a higher proportion of the first fraction of cells have a higher growth capacity. The phytoplankton between New Zealand and Hawaii having varying proportions of the two fractions has a varying growth capacity. The phytoplankton is the single entity that is controlled both by its own variable growth capacity and a variable oceanic nutrient concentration between New Zealand and Hawaii. The phytoplankton is a single but scattered, concrete object; growth capacity is a single, abstract entity. The two together do not control nutrient concentrations since they are powerless to prevent large, excess amounts of nutrient about the equator. Instead, then, growth capacity and nutrient concentratio...