Phytoplankton community response to a manipulation of bioavailable iron in HNLC waters of the subtropical Pacific Ocean

Abstract

Studies in high nutrient, low chlorophyll (HNLC) regions have demonstrated that increased Fe availability results in an increase in phytoplankton biomass and changes in community composition. Here we present experiments in which the availability of iron (Fe) was increased or reduced to monitor the response of individual groups of phytoplankton (large eukaryotes, pico- eukaryotes and cyanobacteria) by flow cytometry. Additions (0.5 to 5.0 nM Fe) and reductions in available Fe (through addition of 1 to 10 nM of the fungal siderophore desferrioxamine B) were made to enclosed communities from the South American eastern boundary current off Peru, where ambi- ent dissolved Fe concentrations were <100 pM. As predicted, chlorophyll concentrations increased in the added Fe treatments relative to the control, indicative of Fe limitation. Flow cytometry demon- strated that this was due to increases in the abundance of large eukaryotes that are Fe-starved under ambient conditions. Cyanobacterial abundance increased and decreased linearly with Fe availabil- ity, suggesting that cyanobacteria were Fe-limited but not Fe-starved. In contrast, picoeukaryote cell abundance increased with decreasing Fe availability, although chlorophyll cell -1 in this group responded in an inverse manner. The results demonstrate that members of the marine phytoplankton community respond differently to Fe availability, which may influence the outcome of biological competition among organisms in Fe-limited environments.