Microzooplankton grazing and phytoplankton growth in marine mesocosms with increased CO 2 levels

By Kerstin Suffrian, Paolo Simonelli, Jens C. Nejstgaard, S. Putzeys, Y. Carotenuto, A. Antia. 2008

84 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract. Microzooplankton grazing and algae growth responses to increasing pCO2 levels (350, 700 and 1050 μatm) were investigated in nitrate and phosphate fertilized mesocosms during the PeECE III experiment 2005. Grazing and growth rates were estimated by the dilution technique combined with taxon specific HPLC pigment analysis. Microzooplankton composition was determined by light microscopy. Despite a range of up to 3 times the present CO2 levels, there were no clear differences in any measured parameter between the different CO2 treatments. During days 3–9 of the experiment the algae community standing stock, measured as chlorophyll a (Chl-a), showed the highest instantaneous grow rates (k=0.37–0.99 d−1) and increased from ca. 2–3 to 6–12 μg l−1, in all mesocosms. Afterwards the phytoplankton standing stock decreased in all mesocosms until the end of the experiment. The microzooplankton standing stock, that was mainly constituted by dinoflagellates and ciliates, varied between 23 and 130 μg C l−1 (corresponding to 1.9 and 10.8 μmol C l−1), peaking on day 13–15, apparently responding to the phytoplankton development. Instantaneous Chl-a growth rates were generally higher than the grazing rates, indicating only a limited overall effect of microzooplankton grazing on the most dominant phytoplankton. Diatoms and prymnesiophytes were significantly grazed (12–43% of the standing stock d−1) only in the pre-bloom phase when they were in low numbers, and in the post-bloom phase when they were already affected by low nutrients and/or viral lysis. The cyanobacteria populations appeared more affected by microzooplankton grazing which generally removed 20–65% of the standing stock per day.

Subfields: Oceanography

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/12e7c57118607631ebfeadb0675e13c6981100f6

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Citations in the corpus

Capacity of herbivorous protists to control initiation and development of mass phytoplankton blooms (2009, background): “…a va lu es w er e es ti m at ed f ro m ab u n d an ce o r ca rb on p er u n it v ol u m e d at a p re se n te d in t h e p ap er s, a ss u m in g a C :c h l a ra ti o of 5 0: 1. n d : n ot d et er m in ed Aquat Microb Ecol: Preprint, 2009 zooplankton grazers is presented by Suffrian et al. (2008).”
Arctic microbial community dynamics influenced by elevated CO2 levels (2012, result): “OA has been reported not to affect microzooplankton abundance or grazing activity (Suffrian et al., 2008), however in contrast to our study, neither phytoplankton composition nor succession differed between their CO 2 treatments (Riebesell et al., 2007).”
Mesocosm CO 2 perturbation studies: from organism to community level (2008, background): “…diversity of attached bacteria, 14 C-leucine based bacterial production, bacteria-phytoplankton coupling (Allgaier et al., 2008) – micro-zooplankton grazing (Suffrian et al., 2008) 20 – copepod feeding and egg production (Carotenuto et al., 2007) In contrast, distinct CO 2 treatment effects were…”
The effects of changing climate on microzooplankton grazing and community structure: drivers, predictions and knowledge gaps (2013, background): “Less obvious responses of the microzooplankton community to increased CO2 levels in mesocosm experiments were reported by Suffrian et al. (Suffrian et al., 2008).”
Effect of ocean acidification on microbial diversity and on microbe-driven biogeochemistry and ecosystem functioning (2010, unknown): “In the PeECE III experiment, grazing was highly dynamic over time, and no effect of CO2 on microzooplankton grazing was found (Suffrian et al. 2008).”
Mesocosm Experiments as a Tool for Ecological Climate-Change Research (2013, unknown): “…plants Comm S M L T Diversity Seas. plants Comm S M L Le Warming Microinverts Comm M M M Strecker et al. (2004) M CO2_pH Microinverts Comm L M S Suffrian et al. (2008) T Warming Macroinverts Eco S S M Sulkava and Huhta (2003) T Diversity Macroinverts Eco S S M M Light Peren. plants Comm M…”