Calcification of an estuarine coccolithophore increases with ocean acidification when subjected to diurnally fluctuating carbonate chemistry

Ocean acidification has the capacity to impact future coccolithophore growth, photosynthesis, and calcification, but experimental culture work with coccolithophores has produced seemingly contradictory results and has focused on open-ocean species. We investigated the influence of pCO₂ (between 250...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Marine ecology. Progress series (Halstenbek) 2018-08, Vol.601, p.59-76
Main Authors: White, Meredith M., Drapeau, David T., Lubelczyk, Laura C., Abel, Victoria C., Bowler, Bruce C., Balch, William M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acidification
Brackishwater environment
Calcification
Capacity
Carbon dioxide
Carbonates
Chemistry
Coastal waters
Diurnal
Estuaries
Estuarine environments
Experimental culture
Growth rate
Ocean acidification
Organic chemistry
Photosynthesis
Substrate inhibition
Variation
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Summary:Ocean acidification has the capacity to impact future coccolithophore growth, photosynthesis, and calcification, but experimental culture work with coccolithophores has produced seemingly contradictory results and has focused on open-ocean species. We investigated the influence of pCO₂ (between 250 and 750 μatm) on the growth, photosynthetic, and calcification rates of the estuarine coccolithophore Pleurochrysis carterae using a CO₂ manipulation system that allowed for natural carbonate chemistry variability, representing the highly variable carbonate chemistry of coastal and estuarine waters. We further considered the influence of pCO₂ on dark calcification. Increased pCO₂ conditions had no significant impact on P. carterae growth rate or photosynthetic rate. However, P. carterae calcification rates significantly increased at elevated mean pCO₂ concentrations of 750 μatm. P. carterae calcification was somewhat, but not completely, light-dependent, with increased calcification rates at elevated mean pCO₂ conditions in both light and dark incubations. This trend of increased calcification at higher pCO₂ conditions fits into a recently developed substrate-inhibitor concept, which demonstrates a calcification optima concept that broadly fits the experimental results of many studies on the impact of increased pCO₂ on coccolithophore calcification.
ISSN:0171-8630
1616-1599
DOI:10.3354/meps12639