Abstract
AME Aquatic Microbial Ecology Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsSpecials AME 61:291-305 (2010) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/ame01446 AME Special 4: Progress and perspectives in aquatic microbial ecology: Highlights of the SAME 11, Piran, Slovenia, 2009 Effect of ocean acidification on microbial diversity and on microbe-driven biogeochemistry and ecosystem functioning Jinwen Liu1,2,3, Markus G. Weinbauer1,2, Cornelia Maier1,2, Minhan Dai3, Jean-Pierre Gattuso1,2,* 1INSU-CNRS, Laboratoire d'Océanographie de Villefranche, BP 28, 06234 Villefranche-sur-mer Cedex, France 2Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Observatoire Océanologique de Villefranche, 06230 Villefranche-sur-mer, France 3State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen University, 361005 Xiamen, China *Corresponding author. Email: gattuso@obs-vlfr.fr ABSTRACT: The ocean absorbs about 25% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions, which alters its chemistry. Among the changes of the carbonate system are an increase in the partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) and a decline of pH; hence, the whole process is often referred to as 'ocean acidification'. Many microbial processes can be affected either directly or indirectly via a cascade of effects through the response of non-microbial groups and/or through changes in seawater chemistry. We briefly review the current understanding of the impact of ocean acidification on microbial diversity and processes, and highlight the gaps that need to be addressed in future research. The focus is on Bacteria, Archaea, viruses and protistan grazers but also includes total primary production of phytoplankton as well as species composition of eukaryotic phytoplankton. Some species and communities exhibit increased primary production at elevated pCO2. In contrast to their heterocystous counterparts, nitrogen fixation by non-heterocystous cyanobacteria is stimulated by elevated pCO2. The experimental data on the response of prokaryotic production to ocean acidification are not consistent. Very few other microbial processes have been investigated at environmentally relevant pH levels. The potential for microbes to adapt to ocean acidification, at either the species level by genetic change or at the community level through the replacement of sensitive species or groups by non- or less sensitive ones, is completely unknown. Consequently, the impact of ocean acidification on keystone species and microbial diversity needs to be elucidated. Most experiments used a short-term perturbation approach by using cultured organisms; few were conducted in mesocosms and none in situ. There is likely a lot to be learned from observations in areas naturally enriched with CO2, such as vents, upwelling and near-shore areas. KEY WORDS: Ocean acidification · Microbial diversity · Microbe · Bacteria · Phytoplankton · Viruses á Biogeochemistry · Meta-analysis Full text in pdf format PreviousCite this article as: Liu J, Weinbauer MG, Maier C, Dai M, Gattuso JP (2010) Effect of ocean acidification on microbial diversity and on microbe-driven biogeochemistry and ecosystem functioning. Aquat Microb Ecol 61:291-305. https://doi.org/10.3354/ame01446 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in AME Vol. 61, No. 3. Online publication date: December 30, 2010 Print ISSN: 0948-3055; Online ISSN: 1616-1564 Copyright © 2010 Inter-Research.
Highlights
The partial pressure of carbon dioxide increases in the atmosphere due to the anthropogenic input of CO2 through the burning of fossil fuel, cement production and land-use change
We briefly review the current understanding of the impact of ocean acidification on microbial diversity and processes, and highlight the gaps that need to be addressed in future research
Cyanobacteria are the largest and the most widely distributed group of photosynthetic prokaryotes (Burns et al 2005). This group has a major impact on the global carbon cycle and contributes up to 50% of the Transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) production dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration BPP BPP BPP csBPP csBPP csBPP bacterial abundance (BA) (HBA) BA (LBA) BA viral abundance (VA) (LVA) VA (HVA) Nitrogen fixation C:N ratio C:P ratio N:P ratio Community respiration Net primary production Cyanobacterial growth rate Cyanobacterial CO2 fixation rate
Summary
The partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2) increases in the atmosphere due to the anthropogenic input of CO2 through the burning of fossil fuel, cement production and land-use change. Changes will be more pronounced in areas such as the Southern Ocean, which will become undersaturated with respect to aragonite in 2050 (Orr et al 2005), and the Arctic Ocean where aragonite undersaturation will occur even sooner (Steinacher et al 2009) This change in the chemistry of the oceans is quantifiable and predictable for a given level of atmospheric pCO2. Here considered as single-celled organisms (i.e. prokaryotes and protists) and viruses, are very diverse, as they thrive in a large range of habitats and perform a wide range of functions. They are involved in virtually all geochemical reactions occurring in the oceans (Kirchman 2008). We used a meta-analytic approach to comprehensively review the current understanding of the effect of ocean acidification on microbes and microbial processes, and to highlight the gaps that need to be addressed in future research
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