Nitrogen limitation of the summer phytoplankton and heterotrophic prokaryote communities in the Chukchi Sea
© The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Marine Science 5 (2018): 362, doi:10.3389/fmars.2018.00362. Major changes to Arctic marine ecosystems have resulted in longer growing s...
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ftwhoas:oai:darchive.mblwhoilibrary.org:1912/10649 2023-05-15T15:00:40+02:00 Nitrogen limitation of the summer phytoplankton and heterotrophic prokaryote communities in the Chukchi Sea Mills, Matthew M. Brown, Zachary W. Laney, Samuel R. Ortega-Retuerta, Eva Lowry, Kate E. van Dijken, Gert L. Arrigo, Kevin R. 2018-10-15 https://hdl.handle.net/1912/10649 en_US eng Frontiers Media https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2018.00362 Frontiers in Marine Science 5 (2018): 362 https://hdl.handle.net/1912/10649 doi:10.3389/fmars.2018.00362 Attribution 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ CC-BY Frontiers in Marine Science 5 (2018): 362 doi:10.3389/fmars.2018.00362 Phytoplankton Nitrogen Chukchi Sea Nitrate Nutrient limitation Article 2018 ftwhoas https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2018.00362 2022-05-28T23:00:30Z © The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Marine Science 5 (2018): 362, doi:10.3389/fmars.2018.00362. Major changes to Arctic marine ecosystems have resulted in longer growing seasons with increased phytoplankton production over larger areas. In the Chukchi Sea, the high productivity fuels intense benthic denitrification creating a nitrogen (N) deficit that is transported through the Arctic to the Atlantic Ocean, where it likely fuels N fixation. Given the rapid pace of environmental change and the potentially globally significant N deficit, we conducted experiments aimed at understanding phytoplankton and microbial N utilization in the Chukchi Sea. Ship-board experiments tested the effect of nitrate (NO3-) additions on both phytoplankton and heterotrophic prokaryote abundance, community composition, photophysiology, carbon fixation and NO3- uptake rates. Results support the critical role of NO3- in limiting summer phytoplankton communities to small cells with low production rates. NO3- additions increased particulate concentrations, abundance of large diatoms, and rates of carbon fixation and NO3- uptake by cells >1 μm. Increases in the quantum yield and electron turnover rate of photosystem II in +NO3- treatments suggested that phytoplankton in the ambient dissolved N environment were N starved and unable to build new, or repair damaged, reaction centers. While some increases in heterotrophic prokaryote abundance and production were noted with NO3- amendments, phytoplankton competition or grazers likely dampened these responses. Trends toward a warmer more stratified Chukchi Sea will likely enhance summer oligotrophic conditions and further N starve Chukchi Sea phytoplankton communities. Fieldwork and analysis for the ICESCAPE program was supported by Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry Program of the National Aeronautic and Space Administration under Grant No. NNX10AF42G to KA. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Chukchi Chukchi Sea Phytoplankton Woods Hole Scientific Community: WHOAS (Woods Hole Open Access Server) Arctic Chukchi Sea Frontiers in Marine Science 5 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Woods Hole Scientific Community: WHOAS (Woods Hole Open Access Server) |
op_collection_id |
ftwhoas |
language |
English |
topic |
Phytoplankton Nitrogen Chukchi Sea Nitrate Nutrient limitation |
spellingShingle |
Phytoplankton Nitrogen Chukchi Sea Nitrate Nutrient limitation Mills, Matthew M. Brown, Zachary W. Laney, Samuel R. Ortega-Retuerta, Eva Lowry, Kate E. van Dijken, Gert L. Arrigo, Kevin R. Nitrogen limitation of the summer phytoplankton and heterotrophic prokaryote communities in the Chukchi Sea |
topic_facet |
Phytoplankton Nitrogen Chukchi Sea Nitrate Nutrient limitation |
description |
© The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Marine Science 5 (2018): 362, doi:10.3389/fmars.2018.00362. Major changes to Arctic marine ecosystems have resulted in longer growing seasons with increased phytoplankton production over larger areas. In the Chukchi Sea, the high productivity fuels intense benthic denitrification creating a nitrogen (N) deficit that is transported through the Arctic to the Atlantic Ocean, where it likely fuels N fixation. Given the rapid pace of environmental change and the potentially globally significant N deficit, we conducted experiments aimed at understanding phytoplankton and microbial N utilization in the Chukchi Sea. Ship-board experiments tested the effect of nitrate (NO3-) additions on both phytoplankton and heterotrophic prokaryote abundance, community composition, photophysiology, carbon fixation and NO3- uptake rates. Results support the critical role of NO3- in limiting summer phytoplankton communities to small cells with low production rates. NO3- additions increased particulate concentrations, abundance of large diatoms, and rates of carbon fixation and NO3- uptake by cells >1 μm. Increases in the quantum yield and electron turnover rate of photosystem II in +NO3- treatments suggested that phytoplankton in the ambient dissolved N environment were N starved and unable to build new, or repair damaged, reaction centers. While some increases in heterotrophic prokaryote abundance and production were noted with NO3- amendments, phytoplankton competition or grazers likely dampened these responses. Trends toward a warmer more stratified Chukchi Sea will likely enhance summer oligotrophic conditions and further N starve Chukchi Sea phytoplankton communities. Fieldwork and analysis for the ICESCAPE program was supported by Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry Program of the National Aeronautic and Space Administration under Grant No. NNX10AF42G to KA. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Mills, Matthew M. Brown, Zachary W. Laney, Samuel R. Ortega-Retuerta, Eva Lowry, Kate E. van Dijken, Gert L. Arrigo, Kevin R. |
author_facet |
Mills, Matthew M. Brown, Zachary W. Laney, Samuel R. Ortega-Retuerta, Eva Lowry, Kate E. van Dijken, Gert L. Arrigo, Kevin R. |
author_sort |
Mills, Matthew M. |
title |
Nitrogen limitation of the summer phytoplankton and heterotrophic prokaryote communities in the Chukchi Sea |
title_short |
Nitrogen limitation of the summer phytoplankton and heterotrophic prokaryote communities in the Chukchi Sea |
title_full |
Nitrogen limitation of the summer phytoplankton and heterotrophic prokaryote communities in the Chukchi Sea |
title_fullStr |
Nitrogen limitation of the summer phytoplankton and heterotrophic prokaryote communities in the Chukchi Sea |
title_full_unstemmed |
Nitrogen limitation of the summer phytoplankton and heterotrophic prokaryote communities in the Chukchi Sea |
title_sort |
nitrogen limitation of the summer phytoplankton and heterotrophic prokaryote communities in the chukchi sea |
publisher |
Frontiers Media |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/1912/10649 |
geographic |
Arctic Chukchi Sea |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Chukchi Sea |
genre |
Arctic Chukchi Chukchi Sea Phytoplankton |
genre_facet |
Arctic Chukchi Chukchi Sea Phytoplankton |
op_source |
Frontiers in Marine Science 5 (2018): 362 doi:10.3389/fmars.2018.00362 |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2018.00362 Frontiers in Marine Science 5 (2018): 362 https://hdl.handle.net/1912/10649 doi:10.3389/fmars.2018.00362 |
op_rights |
Attribution 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2018.00362 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Marine Science |
container_volume |
5 |
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1766332755809927168 |