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

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MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 601:59-76 (2018) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps12639 Calcification of an estuarine coccolithophore increases with ocean acidification when subjected to diurnally fluctuating carbonate chemistry Meredith M. White1,3, David T. Drapeau1, Laura C. Lubelczyk1, Victoria C. Abel2, Bruce C. Bowler1, William M. Balch1,* 1Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, East Boothbay, ME 04544, USA 2Colby College, Waterville, ME 04901, USA 3Present address: Mook Sea Farm, Walpole, ME 04573, USA *Corresponding author: bbalch@bigelow.org ABSTRACT: 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. KEY WORDS: Ocean acidification · Coccolithophore · Calcification · Carbon dioxide · CO2 · Photosynthesis · PIC:POC ratio · Pleurochrysis carterae Full text in pdf format PreviousNextCite this article as: White MM, Drapeau DT, Lubelczyk LC, Abel VC, Bowler BC, Balch WM (2018) Calcification of an estuarine coccolithophore increases with ocean acidification when subjected to diurnally fluctuating carbonate chemistry. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 601:59-76. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps12639 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 601. Online publication date: August 09, 2018 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2018 Inter-Research.