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DISCUSSION OF CHAPTER VII 



Walter Abbott (Houston, Texas) : You are undoubtedly aware 

 of the criticisms of the light-dark bottle technique, mainly because 

 of the reduction in turbulence. Does this mean that your data 

 represent minimum estimates? 



Bernard C. Patten (Gloucester Point, Virginia): I do not 

 know what it means, actually. There are four or five classes of 

 criticism of the light and dark bottle method. Some of them work 

 in opposition, i.e., an error in one direction may be cancelled or 

 partially mollified by another error in the reverse direction. I 

 think the technique is marginal, at best, for obtaining absolute 

 measures of energy flux, but quite adequate for relative com- 

 parisons of the activities of different populations, which is how we 

 used it. If you perform enough experiments and observe that a 

 fairly consistent pattern emerges, you can begin to feel confident 

 of the reality of the pattern even though the data may represent 

 minimal estimates. 



Heather D. Mayor (Houston, Texas): Would you have to 

 allow for extra energy gain to your system, brought about by the 

 process of measurement? Is there, for example, additional "noise" 

 added to the respiration term because of the measurements? 



Patten: I am not quite certain what you mean, but we do make 

 corrections of the type you suggest. We make a correction for the 

 fact that the photosynthetic quotient is generally greater than 

 unity in marine phytoplankton, but I do not believe that this is 

 the kind of thing to which you are referring. 



