scholarly journals Universal metabolic constraints on the thermal tolerance of marine phytoplankton

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Barton ◽  
James Jenkins ◽  
Angus Buckling ◽  
C.-Elisa Schaum ◽  
Nicholas Smirnoff ◽  
...  

AbstractMarine phytoplankton are responsible for over 45% of annual global net primary production. Ocean warming is expected to drive massive reorganisation of phytoplankton communities, resulting in pole-ward range shifts and sharp declines in species diversity, particularly in the tropics. The impacts of warming on phytoplankton species depend critically on their physiological sensitivity to temperature change, characterised by thermal tolerance curves. Local extinctions arise when temperatures exceed species’ thermal tolerance limits. The mechanisms that determine the characteristics of thermal tolerance curves (e.g. optimal and maximal temperatures) and their variability among the broad physiological diversity of marine phytoplankton are however poorly understood. Here we show that differences in the temperature responses of photosynthesis and respiration establish physiological trade-offs that constrain the thermal tolerance of 18 species of marine phytoplankton, spanning cyanobacteria as well as the red and green super-families. Across all species we found that rates of respiration were more sensitive to increasing temperature and typically had higher optimal temperatures than photosynthesis. Consequently, the fraction of photosynthetic energy available for allocation to growth (carbon-use efficiency) declined exponentially with rising temperatures with a sensitivity that was invariant among the 18 species. Furthermore, the optimal temperature of growth was generally lower than that of photosynthesis and as a result, supra-optimal declines in growth rate were associated with temperature ranges where the carbon-use efficiency exhibited accelerated declines. These highly conserved patterns demonstrate that the limits of thermal tolerance in marine phytoplankton are underpinned by common metabolic constraints linked to the differential temperature responses of photosynthesis and respiration.Significance StatementThe impacts of warming on marine phytoplankton depend on their sensitivity to rising temperatures, yet there is currently limited understanding of the mechanisms that limit thermal tolerance among the diversity of marine phytoplankton. Using a comparative study on the dominant, ecologically important lineages of marine phytoplankton – Bacillariophyceae, Dinophyceae, Cyanophyceae, Prasinophyceae, Prymnesiophyceae – we show that rates of respiration are consistently more sensitive to increasing temperature than photosynthesis. Consequently, the fraction of photosynthetic energy available for growth declines with rising temperatures with a sensitivity that is invariant among species. Our results suggest that declines in phytoplankton performance at high temperatures are driven by universal metabolic constrains linked to rising respiratory costs eventually exceeding the supply of reduced carbon from photosynthesis.

2005 ◽  
Vol 130 (6) ◽  
pp. 918-927 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan M. Frantz ◽  
Bruce Bugbee

Cloudy days cause an abrupt reduction in daily photosynthetic photon flux (PPF), but we have a poor understanding of how plants acclimate to this change. We used a unique 10-chamber, steady-state, gas-exchange system to continuously measure daily photosynthesis and night respiration of populations of a starch accumulator [tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. cv. Micro-Tina)] and a sucrose accumulator [lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. cv. Grand Rapids)] over 42 days. All measurements were done at elevated CO2 (1200 μmol·mol-1) to avoid any CO2 limitations and included both shoots and roots. We integrated photosynthesis and respiration measurements separately to determine daily net carbon gain and carbon use efficiency (CUE) as the ratio of daily net C gain to total day-time C fixed over the 42-day period. After 16 to 20 days of growth in constant PPF, plants in some chambers were subjected to an abrupt PPF reduction to simulate shade or a series of cloudy days. The immediate effect and the long term acclimation rate were assessed from canopy quantum yield and carbon use efficiency. The effect of shade on carbon use efficiency and acclimation was much slower than predicted by widely used growth models. It took 12 days for tomato populations to recover their original CUE and lettuce CUE never completely acclimated. Tomatoes, the starch accumulator, acclimated to low light more rapidly than lettuce, the sucrose accumulator. Plant growth models should be modified to include the photosynthesis/respiration imbalance and resulting inefficiency of carbon gain associated with changing PPF conditions on cloudy days.


2017 ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
M. Cañizares ◽  
A. Moreno ◽  
S. Sánchez-Ruiz ◽  
M.A. Gilabert

<p>Carbon use efficiency (CUE) describes how efficiently plants incorporate the carbon fixed during photosynthesis into biomass gain and can be calculated as the ratio between net primary production (NPP) and gross primary production (GPP). In this work, annual CUE has been obtained from annual GPP and NPP MODIS products for the peninsular Spain study area throughout eight years. CUE is spatially and temporally analyzed in terms of the vegetation type and annual precipitation and annual average air temperature. Results show that dense vegetation areas with moderate to high levels of precipitation present lower CUE values, whereas more arid areas present the highest CUE values. However, the temperature effect on the spatial variation of CUE is not well characterized. On the other hand, inter-annual variations of CUE of different ecosystems are discussed in terms of inter-annual variations of temperature and precipitation. It is shown that CUE exhibited a positive correlation with precipitation and a negative correlation with temperature in most ecosystems. Thus, CUE decreases when the ecosystem conditions change towards aridity.</p>


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaolu Tang ◽  
Nuno Carvalhais ◽  
Catarina Moura ◽  
Bernhard Ahrens ◽  
Sujan Koirala ◽  
...  

Abstract. Vegetation carbon use efficiency (CUE) is a key measure of carbon (C) transfer from the atmosphere to terrestrial biomass, and indirectly reflects how much C is released through autotrophic respiration from the vegetation to the atmosphere. Diagnosing the variability of CUE with climate and other environmental factors is fundamental to understand its driving factors, and to further fill the current gaps in knowledge about the environmental controls on CUE. Thus, to study CUE variability and its driving factors, this study established a global database of site-year CUE based on observations from 188 field measurement sites for five ecosystem types – forest, grass, wetland, crop and tundra. The spatial pattern of CUE was predicted from global climate and soil variables using Random Forest, and compared with estimates from Dynamic Global Vegetation Models (DGVMs) from the TRENDY model ensemble. Globally, we found two prominent CUE gradients in ecosystem types and latitude, that is, CUE varied with ecosystem types, being the highest in wetlands and lowest in grassland, and CUE decreased with latitude with the lowest CUE in tropics, and the highest CUE in higher latitude regions. CUE varied greatly between data-derived CUE and TRENDY-CUE, but also among TRENDY models. Both data-derived and TRENDY-CUE challenged the constant value of 0.5 for CUE, independent of environmental controls. However, given the role of CUE in controlling the spatial and temporal variability of the terrestrial biosphere C cycle, these results emphasize the need to better understand the biotic and abiotic controls on CUE to reduce the uncertainties in prognostic land-process model simulations. Finally, this study proposed a new estimate of net primary production based on CUE and gross primary production, offering another benchmark for net primary production comparison for global carbon modelling.


Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 515
Author(s):  
Ying Ouyang ◽  
Gary Feng ◽  
Heidi Renninger ◽  
Theodor D. Leininger ◽  
Prem Parajuli ◽  
...  

Eucalyptus is one of the fastest growing hardwoods for bioenergy production. Currently, few modeling tools exist to simultaneously estimate soil hydrological processes, nitrogen (N) uptake, and biomass production in a eucalyptus plantation. In this study, a STELLA (Structural Thinking and Experiential Learning Laboratory with Animation)-based model was developed to meet this need. After the model calibration and validation, a simulation scenario was developed to assess eucalyptus (E. grandis × urophylla) annual net primary production (ANPP), woody biomass production (WBP), water use efficiency (WUE), and N use efficiency (NUE) for a simulation period of 20 years. Simulation results showed that a typical annual variation pattern was predicted for water use, N uptake, and ANPP, increasing from spring to fall and decreasing from fall to the following winter. Overall, the average NUE during the growth stage was 700 kg/kg. To produce 1000 kg eucalyptus biomass, it required 114.84 m3 of water and 0.92 kg of N. This study suggests that the STELLA-based model is a useful tool to estimate ANPP, WBP, WUE, and NUE in a eucalyptus plantation.


1994 ◽  
Vol 128 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. B. TINKER ◽  
D. M. DURALL ◽  
M. D. JONES

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manon Rocco ◽  
Erin Dunne ◽  
Maija Peltola ◽  
Neill Barr ◽  
Jonathan Williams ◽  
...  

AbstractBenzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes can contribute to hydroxyl reactivity and secondary aerosol formation in the atmosphere. These aromatic hydrocarbons are typically classified as anthropogenic air pollutants, but there is growing evidence of biogenic sources, such as emissions from plants and phytoplankton. Here we use a series of shipborne measurements of the remote marine atmosphere, seawater mesocosm incubation experiments and phytoplankton laboratory cultures to investigate potential marine biogenic sources of these compounds in the oceanic atmosphere. Laboratory culture experiments confirmed marine phytoplankton are a source of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes and in mesocosm experiments their sea-air fluxes varied between seawater samples containing differing phytoplankton communities. These fluxes were of a similar magnitude or greater than the fluxes of dimethyl sulfide, which is considered to be the key reactive organic species in the marine atmosphere. Benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes fluxes were observed to increase under elevated headspace ozone concentration in the mesocosm incubation experiments, indicating that phytoplankton produce these compounds in response to oxidative stress. Our findings suggest that biogenic sources of these gases may be sufficiently strong to influence atmospheric chemistry in some remote ocean regions.


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