Phytoplankton Do Not Produce Carbon-Rich Organic Matter in High CO2 Oceans

• Published in: Geophysical Research Letters
• Main Authors: Kim, Ja-Myung, Lee, Kitack, Suh, Young-Sang, Han, In-Seong
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION 2018
• Subjects: TRANSPARENT EXOPOLYMER PARTICLES; ARCTIC PLANKTON COMMUNITIES; DISSOLVED INORGANIC CARBON; MESOCOSM EXPERIMENT; MEDITERRANEAN SEA; ELEVATED CO2; BALTIC SEA; EMILIANIA-HUXLEYI; NATURAL PHYTOPLANKTON; MARINE-PHYTOPLANKTON; carbon dioxide; biological carbon pump; marine phytoplankton; elemental stoichiometry; C: N ratio; Arctic; Phytoplankton
• Online Access: https://oasis.postech.ac.kr/handle/2014.oak/95892; https://doi.org/10.1029/2017GL075865

The ocean is a substantial sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) released as a result of human activities. Over the coming decades the dissolved inorganic C concentration in the surface ocean is predicted to increase, which is expected to have a direct influence on the efficiency of C utilization (consumption and production) by phytoplankton during photosynthesis. Here we evaluated the generality of C-rich organic matter production by examining the elemental C:N ratio of organic matter produced under conditions of varying pCO(2). The data used in this analysis were obtained from a series of pelagic in situ pCO(2) perturbation studies that were performed in the diverse ocean regions and involved natural phytoplankton assemblages. The C:N ratio of the resulting particulate and dissolved organic matter did not differ across the range of pCO(2) conditions tested. In particular, the ratio for particulate organic C and N was found to be 6.58 +/- 0.05, close to the theoretical value of 6.6. 1 1 N scie scopus