Ocean-atmosphere CO2 exchange: An accessible lab simulation for considering biological effects

Abstract

Phytoplankton is considered a key component mediating the ocean-atmospheric exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen. Lab simulations which model biological responses to atmospheric change are difficult to translate into natural settings owing in part to the vertical migration of phytoplankton. In the sea this vertical migration acts to regulate actual carbon dioxide consumption. To capture some critical properties of this vertical material transfer, we monitored the effects of atmospheric CO2 on dense suspensions of bioconvecting microorganisms. Bioconvection refers to the spontaneous patterns of circulation which arise among such upwardly swimming cells as alga, protozoa, zoospore and large bacteria. Gravity, phototaxis and chemotaxis have all been implicated as affecting pattern-forming ability. The ability of a biologically active suspension to detect atmospheric changes offers a unique method to quantify organism adjustment and vertical migration. With increasing CO2, bioconvection patterns in alga (P. parva) and protozoa (T. pyriformis) lose their robustness, and surface cell populations retreat from the highest CO2 regions. Cell movement (both percent motile and mean velocity) generally diminishes. A general program of image analysis yields statistically significant variations in macroscopic migration patterns; both fractal dimension and various crystallographic parameters correlate strongly with carbon dioxide content.