NEGENTROPY FLOW IN COMMUNITIES OF PLANKTON1

Abstract

A model generalizing negentropy flux in plankton communities is presented. The biomass information equivalent B(I) at time t is urn:x-wiley:00243590:media:lno1961610026:lno1961610026-math-0001 where π (gross production) and ρ (respiration) represent rates of negentropy gain and loss, respectively. From this equation is derived an expression for the total community information in a homogeneous water column of depth z assuming a logistic relationship between photosynthesis and light intensity: urn:x-wiley:00243590:media:lno1961610026:lno1961610026-math-0002 where ϕ is a photosynthetic constant, I0 is environmental negentropy concentration at the surface, δ is a decay coefficient expressing the rate of diminution of I0 with depth, and c is the compensation depth. Various transformations of the exponent of this equation yielded for gross production in the whole water column: urn:x-wiley:00243590:media:lno1961610026:lno1961610026-math-0003 for respiration: urn:x-wiley:00243590:media:lno1961610026:lno1961610026-math-0004 and for net production: urn:x-wiley:00243590:media:lno1961610026:lno1961610026-math-0005 The cost in community negentropy to procure a unit of biotope negentropy was formulated as urn:x-wiley:00243590:media:lno1961610026:lno1961610026-math-0006 Empirical data are provided for a station in Raritan Bay which indicate a net loss of planktonic negentropy during the summer of 1959 amounting to 5.46 ✕ 1020 bits/cm2/day. A comparison of observed costs with expected values computed from the model indicated no significant difference between expectation and observation, demonstrating the efficacy of the model even under conditions where the assumption of perfect homogeneity throughout the water column was only partially realized.