Inorganic carbon uptake by Southern Ocean phytoplankton

We report the results of laboratory and field studies examining inorganic carbon (C i ) utilization by Southern Ocean phytoplankton. Both in monospecific laboratory cultures of diatoms and Phaeocystis antarctica and in natural assemblages in the Ross Sea, C i uptake by phytoplankton was dominated by...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Limnology and Oceanography
Main Authors: Tortell, PD, Payne, C, Gueguen, C, Strzepek, RF, Boyd, PW, Rost, B
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Amer Soc Limnology Oceanography 2008
Subjects:
Environmental Sciences
Climate change impacts and adaptation
Ecological impacts of climate change and ecological adaptation
Ross Sea
Southern Ocean
Antarc*
Antarctica
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.4319/lo.2008.53.4.1266
http://ecite.utas.edu.au/95533
Description
Summary:We report the results of laboratory and field studies examining inorganic carbon (C i ) utilization by Southern Ocean phytoplankton. Both in monospecific laboratory cultures of diatoms and Phaeocystis antarctica and in natural assemblages in the Ross Sea, C i uptake by phytoplankton was dominated by direct HCO 3 1 transport. The contribution of HCO 3 1 transport to total C i uptake ranged from 65% to 95%, with an overall average of ~80%. There was no significant difference among diatoms and Phaeocystis in the extent of HCO 3 1 transport. Extracellular carbonic anhydrase activity (eCA) was detected in eight of nine laboratory phytoplankton cultures and in all natural assemblages in the Ross Sea. The effective catalytic enhancement of HCO 3 1 : CO 2 interconversion ranged from 1.5- to 13-fold (overall mean ~4-fold). Diatom-dominated Ross Sea assemblages had significantly greater eCA levels than did Phaeocystis -dominated assemblages. We found no strong correlations between C i uptake parameters and in situ CO 2 concentrations or chlorophyll a levels in the Ross Sea assemblages. Incubation experiments with natural assemblages showed that HCO 3 1 uptake and eCA expression did not change significantly over an 8-fold range in pCO 2 (10.1-81.1 Pa), although total short-term C fixation rates increased under low CO 2 conditions. Carbon-concentrating mechanisms are widespread among Southern Ocean phytoplankton and constitutively expressed by natural assemblages in the Ross Sea.

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