Table 1 Intracellular nitrate storage capacity by different microalgal classes.

From: Intracellular nitrate storage by diatoms can be an important nitrogen pool in freshwater and marine ecosystems

Microalgal class

Fucoxanthin

Cell volume (µm3)

ICNO3 (mmol  L−1)

ICNO3 (fmol  cell−1)

Bacillariophyceae (Diatoms)

YES

3226

40.8

131.6

Dinophyceae

YES

12141

0.3

4.1

Chrysophyceae

YES

107

5.5

0.6

Prymnesiophyceae

YES

205

0.0

0.0

Pelagophyceae

YES

5

n.d.

n.d.

Cryptophyceae

NO

217

1.8

0.4

Chlorophyceae

NO

422

0.4

0.2

Cyanobacteria

NO

174

n.d.

n.d.

  1. Fucoxanthin YES/NO indicates that fucoxanthin occurs/does not occur in the respective microalgal class. The median cell volume of each microalgal class was calculated from data presented in the ICES report “PEG_BVOL_2021”. The median ICNO3 concentration of each microalgal class was calculated from published data and from data obtained in this study (Supplementary Table 4 and Supplementary Data 4). The median ICNO3 content of each microalgal class was calculated from its median ICNO3 concentration and cell volume. Note that the prokaryotic cyanobacteria are only functionally equivalent to the eukaryotic microalgae listed here. n.d. no data.
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