Physiological responses of Skeletonema costatum to the interactions of seawater acidification and combination of photoperiod and temperature

• Main Authors: Li, Hangxiao, Xu, Tianpeng, Ma, Jing, Li, Futian, Xu, Juntian
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-2020-303; https://bg.copernicus.org/preprints/bg-2020-303/

Ocean acidification (OA), which is a major environmental change caused by increasing atmospheric CO 2 , has considerable influences on marine phytoplankton. But few studies have investigated interactions of OA and seasonal changes in temperature and photoperiod on marine diatoms. In the present study, a marine diatom Skeletonema costatum was cultured under two different CO 2 levels (LC, 400 μatm; HC, 1000 μatm) and three different combinations of temperature and photoperiod length (8:16 L:D with 5 ℃, 12:12 L:D with 15 ℃, 16:8 L:D with 25 ℃), simulating different seasons in typical temperate oceans, to investigate the combined effects of these factors. The results showed that specific growth rate of S. costatum increased with increasing temperature and daylength. However, OA showed contrasting effects on growth and photosynthesis under different combinations of temperature and daylength: while positive effects of OA were observed under spring and autumn conditions, it significantly decreased growth (11 %) and photosynthesis (21 %) in winter. In addition, low temperature and short daylength decreased the proteins of PSII (D1, CP47 and RubcL) at ambient p CO2 level, while OA alleviated the negative effect. These data indicated that future ocean acidification may show differential effects on diatoms in different cluster of other factors.