Impacts of elevated CO2 on phytoplankton community composition and organic carbon dynamics in nutrient-depleted Okhotsk Sea surface waters

• Main Authors: Yoshimura, T., Nishioka, J., Suzuki, K., Hattori, H., Kiyosawa, H., Watanabe, Y. W.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications
• Subjects: 468; Okhotsk; Ocean acidification; okhotsk sea
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2115/48181; https://doi.org/10.5194/bgd-6-4143-2009

Impacts of the increasing CO2 in seawater (i.e. ocean acidification) on phytoplankton physiology may have various and potentially adverse effects on phytoplankton dynamics and the carbon cycle. We conducted a CO2 manipulation experiment in the Sea of Okhotsk in summer 2006 to investigate the response of the phytoplankton assemblage and dynamics of organic carbon. During the 14-day incubation of nutrient-depleted surface water with a natural phytoplankton assemblage under 150, 280, 480, and 590μatm pCO2, the relative abundance of fucoxanthin-containing phytoplankton such as diatoms and prymnesiophytes decreased with increasing pCO2. The amount of DOC accumulation also decreased with increasing pCO2, while differences in POC accumulation between the treatments were small and did not show a clear trend with the pCO2. Change in the phytoplankton community composition under different pCO2 conditions will alter the organic carbon dynamics as found in the present experiment. Compared to results in the literature from nutrient-replete conditions indicating a potential enhancement of phytoplankton production with elevated pCO2, the present results indicated a different physiological response of phytoplankton under nutrient-depleted conditions. These results indicate that the continuing increase in atmospheric CO2 can significantly affect the structure of marine ecosystems and carbon cycle in nutrient-depleted subpolar surface waters.