Silicon content of five marine plankton diatom species measured with a rapid filter method1

Abstract

The silicon content of five species of marine planktonic diatoms grown in laboratory culture was measured by a method involving soda hydrolysis of cells collected on polycarbonate filters. An increase in the temperature or light intensity during growth resulted in an increase in the Si content in some species and a decrease in others. The magnitude of these changes depended on whether the results were expressed as pg Si·cell⁻¹, pg Si·µm⁻² cell surface area, or pg Si per pg C.