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College of Science | College of Agricultural Sciences

Department of Botany and Plant Pathology





Michael Behrenfeld

Professor
Ph.D., 1993, Oregon State University
behrenfm@science.oregonstate.edu

 

Office/Lab: Cordley 4116/3087
Phone: 541-737-5289/6204

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Research Area

Marine algae.

Description of Research

Physiological-ecology of marine algae, biogeochemcial cycles, remote sensing of the biosphere, novel optical approaches to understanding algal ecology/physiology, biochemistry & biophysics of photosynthesis, physiological responses of plants to environmental stresses, and regional & global ecological modeling, climate change and carbon cycling.

Research Group Members

Faculty Research Assistants/ Associates

Giorgio Dall'Olmo
Kim Halsey
Robert O'Malley
Paul Schrader
Toby Westbury

Related Links

Phytoplankton Ecophysiology Lab

Ocean Productivity

Publications

PubMed

B. Schneider, L. Bopp, M. Gehlen, J. Segschneider, T. L. Frölicher, P. Cadule, P. Friedlingstein, S. C. Doney, M. J. Behrenfeld, F. Joos.  2008  Climate-induced interannual variability of marine primary and export production in three global coupled climate carbon cycle models. Biogeosciences  5, 597-614

M.J. Behrenfeld, K. Halsey, A. Milligan.  2008.  Evolved Physiological Responses of Phytoplankton to their Integrated Growth Environment.  Phil. Trans. Royal Soc. B 363, doi:10.1098/rstb.2008.0019.

T. Westberry, M.J. Behrenfeld, D.A. Siegel, E. Boss.  2008.  Carbon-based primary productivity modeling with vertically resolved photoacclimation. Global Biogeochem. Cycles . 22, GB2024, doi:10.1029/2007GB003078

G. Dall'Olmo, T.K. Westberry, M.J. Behrenfeld, E. Boss, W.H. Slade. 2008.  Direct contributions of phytoplankton sized particles to optical backscatter in the open ocean.  Limnol. Oceanogr .  (in review)

M.J. Behrenfeld, D.A. Siegel, R.T. O'Malley.  2008.  Global ocean phytoplankton and productivity.  Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc . (submitted)

S.C. Doney, I. Lima, J.K. Moore, K. Lindsay, M.J. Behrenfeld, N. Mahowald, M. Maltrud, D.M. Glover, D. McGillicuddy, T. Takahashi.  2008.  Skill metrics for confronting global upper ocean ecosystem-biogeochemistry models against field and remote sensing data.  J. Mar. Syst . (accepted for publication)

M. Friedrick, M.J. Behrenfeld et al.  2008.  Assessing the uncertainties of model estimates of primary production in the tropical Pacific ocean.  J. Mar. Syst. (in review)

P. Schultz, M.R. Hiscock, M.J. Behrenfeld, J.P. Dunne, T.K. Westberry, S. Maritorena, D.V. Siegel, J.L. Sarmiento.  2008.  Seasonal plankton cycles in the subarctic Atlantic and Pacific revisited.  Nature (in review)

Y. Hu, K.Powell, M. Vaughan, C. Trepte, C. Weimer, M. Behrenfeld, S. Young, D. Winker, C. Hostetler, W. Hunt, R. Kuehn, D. Flittner, M. Cisewski, G. Gibson, Bing Lin and D. MacDonnell.  2007.  Elevation information in tail (EIT) technique for lidar altimetry.  Optics Express 15, 14504-14515.

Lutz, M.J., K. Caldaira, R.B. Dunbar, M.J. Behrenfeld.  2007. Seasonal rhythms of net primary production and particulate organic carbon flux to depth describe the efficiency of biological pump in the global ocean.  J. Geophys. Res .   112, C10011 doi:10.1029/2006JC003706.

Y. Hu, M. Vaughan, C. McClain, M. Behrenfeld, H. Maring, D. Anderson, S. Sun-Mack, D. Flittner, J Huang, B. Wielicki, P. Minnis, C. Weimer, C. Trepte, R. Kuehn.  2007.  Global statistics of liquid water content and effective number concentration of water clouds over ocean derived from combined CALIPSO and MODIS measurements.  Atmos. Chem. Phys . 7, 3353-3359.

M.J. Behrenfeld, D.Siegel.  2007.  Ocean Productivity - Climate linkages imprinted in satellite observations.  IGBP News Letter 68, 4-7.

M.J. Behrenfeld, R.O'Malley, D.Siegel, C. McClain, J. Sarmiento, G. Feldman, A. Milligan, P. Falkowski, R. Letelier, E. Boss.  2006.  Climate-driven trends in contemporary ocean productivity.  Nature 444, 752-755

M.J. Behrenfeld, K. Worthington, R.M. Sherrell, F. Chavez, P. Strutton, M. McPhaden, D. Shea.  2006.  Controls on tropical Pacific ocean productivity revealed through nutrient stress diagnostics.  Nature 442, 1025-1028

M-E Carr, M.A Friedrichs, M. Schmeltz, M.N. Aita, D. Antoine, K.R. Arrigo, I. Asanuma, O. Aumont, R. Barber, M. Behrenfeld, R. Bidigare, E.T. Buitenhuis, J. Campbell, A. Ciotti, H. Dierssen, M. Dowell, J. Dunne, W. Esaias, B. Gentili, W. Gregg, S. Groom, N. Hoepner, J. Ishizaka, T. Kameda, C. Le Quere, S. Lohrenz, J. Marra, F. Melin, K. Moore, A. Morel, T.E. Reddy, J. Ryan, M. Scardi, T. Smyth, K. Turpie , G. Tilstone, K. Waters, Y. Yamanaka.  2006.  A comparison of global estimates of marine primary production from ocean color.  Deep Sea Res.   53, 741-770

M.J. Behrenfeld, E. Boss. 2006. Beam attenuation and chlorophyll concentration as alternative optical indices of phytoplankton biomass. J. Mar. Res . 64, 431-451.

D.A. Siegel, S. Maritorena, N.B. Nelson, M.J. Behrenfeld, C.R. McClain.  2005.  Colored dissolved organic matter and its influence on the satellite-based characterization of the ocean biosphere.  Geophys. Res. Lett 32, L20605, doi:10.1029/2005GL024310

D.A. Siegel, S. Maritorena, N.B. Nelson, M.J. Behrenfeld. 2005.  Independence and interdependences among global ocean color properties: Reassessing the bio-optical assumption.  J. Geophys. Res . 110, C07011, doi:10.1029/2004JC002527

M.J. Behrenfeld, E. Boss, D. A. Siegel & D. M. Shea  2005. Carbon-based ocean productivity and phytoplankton physiology from space. Global Biogeochem. Cycles , 19, GB1006, doi:10.1029/2004GB002299 (also cited as Editor's Choice in Science 307: 646)

F. Bruyant, M. Babin, B. Genty, O. Prasil, M.J. Behrenfeld, H. Claustre, A. Bricaud, J.
Holtzendorff, M. Koblizek, L. Garczareck & F. Partensky. 2005. Diel variations in the photosynthetic parameters of Prochlorococcus strain PCC 9511: combined effects of light and cell cycle. Limnol. Oceanogr. 50(3): 850-863

H. Havelková-Dousová, O. Prásil, & M. Behrenfeld. 2004.  Photoacclimation of Duneliella tertiolecta (chlorophyceae) to natural light fluctuations simulating vertical mixing.    Photosynthetica . 42:273-281.

M.J. Behrenfeld, O. Prasil, M. Babin & F. Bruyant. 2004. In search of a physiological basis for
covariations in light-limited and light-saturated photosynthesis.  J. Phycology . 40:4-25.

M.J. Behrenfeld, E. Boss. 2003. The beam attenuation to chlorophyll ratio: an optical index of phytoplankton photoacclimation in the surface ocean? Deep Sea Research . 50:1537-1549.

E. Marañón, M.J. Behrenfeld, N. González, B. Mouriño & M.V. Zubkov. 2003.  Variability in primary production in low-nutrient, low-chlorophyll regions of the central Atlantic ocean. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 257:1-11.