Redfield Ratio

Redfield ratio or Redfield stoichiometry is the atomic ratio of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus found in plankton and throughout the deep oceans. This empirically developed stoichiometric ratio is found to be C:N:P = 106:16:1. This term is named after the American oceanographer Alfred C. Redfield, who first described this ratio in an article written in 1934 (Redfield 1934). As a Harvard physiologist, Redfield participated in several voyages on board the research vessel Atlantis. Alfred Redfield analyzed thousands of samples of marine biomass across all of the ocean regions. From this research he found that globally the elemental composition of marine organic matter (dead and living) was remarkably constant across all of the regions. The stoichiometric ratios of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus remain relatively consistent from both the coastal to open ocean regions.