Diurnal variation in the coupling of photosynthetic electron transport and carbon fixation in iron-limited phytoplankton in the NE subarctic Pacific

• Published in: Biogeosciences
• Main Authors: N. Schuback, M. Flecken, M. T. Maldonado, P. D. Tortell
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2016
• Subjects: Ecology; QH540-549.5; Life; QH501-531; Geology; QE1-996.5; Pacific; Subarctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-1019-2016; https://doaj.org/article/6d7b4ece29d14100a89c23807608ee86

Active chlorophyll a fluorescence approaches, including fast repetition rate fluorometry (FRRF), have the potential to provide estimates of phytoplankton primary productivity at an unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. FRRF-derived productivity rates are based on estimates of charge separation in reaction center II (ETR RCII ), which must be converted into ecologically relevant units of carbon fixation. Understanding sources of variability in the coupling of ETR RCII and carbon fixation provides physiological insight into phytoplankton photosynthesis and is critical for the application of FRRF as a primary productivity measurement tool. In the present study, we simultaneously measured phytoplankton carbon fixation and ETR RCII in the iron-limited NE subarctic Pacific over the course of a diurnal cycle. We show that rates of ETR RCII are closely tied to the diurnal cycle in light availability, whereas rates of carbon fixation appear to be influenced by endogenous changes in metabolic energy allocation under iron-limited conditions. Unsynchronized diurnal oscillations of the two rates led to 3.5-fold changes in the conversion factor between ETR RCII and carbon fixation ( K c / n PSII ). Consequently, diurnal variability in phytoplankton carbon fixation cannot be adequately captured with FRRF approaches if a constant conversion factor is applied. Utilizing several auxiliary photophysiological measurements, we observed that a high conversion factor is associated with conditions of excess light and correlates with the increased expression of non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) in the pigment antenna, as derived from FRRF measurements. The observed correlation between NPQ and K c / n PSII requires further validation but has the potential to improve estimates of phytoplankton carbon fixation rates from FRRF measurements alone.