Articles | Volume 21, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-1601-2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-1601-2024
Technical note
 | 
28 Mar 2024
Technical note |  | 28 Mar 2024

Technical note: A comparison of methods for estimating coccolith mass

Celina Rebeca Valença, Luc Beaufort, Gustaaf Marinus Hallegraeff, and Marius Nils Müller

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Cited articles

Aloisi, G.: Covariation of metabolic rates and cell size in coccolithophores, Biogeosciences, 12, 4665–4692, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-4665-2015, 2015. 
Bach, L. T., Bauke, C., Meier, K. J. S., Riebesell, U., and Schulz, K. G.: Influence of changing carbonate chemistry on morphology and weight of coccoliths formed by Emiliania huxleyi, Biogeosciences, 9, 3449–3463, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-9-3449-2012, 2012. 
Bach, L. T., Riebesell, U., Gutowska, M. A., Federwisch, L., and Schulz, K. G.: A unifying concept of coccolithophore sensitivity to changing carbonate chemistry embedded in an ecological framework, Prog. Oceanogr., 135, 125–138, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2015.04.012, 2015. 
Beaufort, L.: Weight estimates of coccoliths using the optical properties (birefringence) of calcite, Micropaleontology, 51, 289–297, https://doi.org/10.2113/gsmicropal.51.4.289, 2005. 
Beaufort, L. and Dollfus, D.: Automatic recognition of coccoliths by dynamical neural networks, Mar. Micropaleontol., 51, 57–73, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marmicro.2003.09.003, 2004. 
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Short summary
Coccolithophores contribute to the global carbon cycle and their calcite structures (coccoliths) are used as a palaeoproxy to understand past oceanographic conditions. Here, we compared three frequently used methods to estimate coccolith mass from the model species Emiliania huxleyi and the results allow for a high level of comparability between the methods, facilitating future comparisons and consolidation of mass changes observed from ecophysiological and biogeochemical studies.
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