High levels of solar radiation offset impacts of ocean acidification on calcifying and non-calcifying strains of Emiliania huxleyi

Abstract

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 568:47-58 (2017) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps12042 High levels of solar radiation offset impacts of ocean acidification on calcifying and non-calcifying strains of Emiliania huxleyi Peng Jin1, Jiancheng Ding1, Tao Xing1, Ulf Riebesell2, Kunshan Gao1,* 1State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science/College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, PR China 2GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Düsternbrooker Weg 20, 24105 Kiel, Germany *Corresponding author: ksgao@xmu.edu.cn ABSTRACT: Coccolithophores, a globally distributed group of marine phytoplankton, showed diverse responses to ocean acidification (OA) and to combinations of OA with other environmental factors. While their growth can be enhanced and calcification be hindered by OA under constant indoor light, fluctuation of solar radiation with ultraviolet irradiances might offset such effects. In this study, when a calcifying and a non-calcifying strain of Emiliania huxleyi were grown at 2 CO2 concentrations (low CO2 [LC]: 395 µatm; high CO2 [HC]: 1000 µatm) under different levels of incident solar radiation in the presence of ultraviolet radiation (UVR), HC and increased levels of solar radiation acted synergistically to enhance the growth in the calcifying strain but not in the non-calcifying strain. HC enhanced the particulate organic carbon (POC) and nitrogen (PON) productions in both strains, and this effect was more obvious at high levels of solar radiation. While HC decreased calcification at low solar radiation levels, it did not cause a significant effect at high levels of solar radiation, implying that a sufficient supply of light energy can offset the impact of OA on the calcifying strain. Our data suggest that increased light exposure, which is predicted to happen with shoaling of the upper mixing layer due to progressive warming, could counteract the impact of OA on coccolithophores distributed within this layer. KEY WORDS: Ocean acidification · Fluctuating light · UV radiation · Coccolithophore · Calcification Full text in pdf format Supplementary material PreviousNextCite this article as: Jin P, Ding J, Xing T, Riebesell U, Gao K (2017) High levels of solar radiation offset impacts of ocean acidification on calcifying and non-calcifying strains of Emiliania huxleyi. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 568:47-58. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps12042 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 568. Online publication date: March 24, 2017 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2017 Inter-Research.