Acidification increases microbial polysaccharide degradation in the ocean

By J. Piontek, M. Lunau, N. Händel, C. Borchard, M. Wurst, A. Engel. 2009

174 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract. With the accumulation of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2), a proceeding decline in seawater pH has been induced that is referred to as ocean acidification. The ocean's capacity for CO2 storage is strongly affected by biological processes, whose feedback potential is difficult to evaluate. The main source of CO2 in the ocean is the decomposition and subsequent respiration of organic molecules by heterotrophic bacteria. However, very little is known about potential effects of ocean acidification on bacterial degradation activity. This study reveals that the degradation of polysaccharides, a major component of marine organic matter, by bacterial extracellular enzymes was significantly accelerated during experimental simulation of ocean acidification. Results were obtained from pH perturbation experiments, where rates of extracellular α- and β-glucosidase were measured and the loss of neutral and acidic sugars from phytoplankton-derived polysaccharides was determined. Our study suggests that a faster bacterial turnover of polysaccharides at lowered ocean pH has the potential to reduce carbon export and to enhance the respiratory CO2 production in the future ocean.

Subfields: Global and Planetary Change, Oceanography

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f975f561fb13e924e887150cd0fbc9b728e08d23

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Global and Planetary Change

1. C. Robinson
2. D. Thornton
3. Hongyue Dang
4. Kwok-Fung Tang
5. Surajit Das
6. U. Passow
7. N. Mangwani
8. Aditee Mitra

In Oceanography

1. D. Thornton
2. C. Carlson
3. C. Robinson
4. M. Weinbauer
5. U. Passow
6. Farooq Azam
7. Hongyue Dang
8. B. Koch

Citations in the corpus

• Dissolved organic matter (DOM) release by phytoplankton in the contemporary and future ocean (2014, background): “For example, extracellular glucosidase activity was enhanced under conditions simulating ocean acidification, leading to a greater degradation of algalderived polysaccharides (Piontek et al., 2010).”
• Bacterial Extracellular Enzymatic Activity in Globally Changing Aquatic Ecosystems (2010, background): “Experimental ocean acidification experiments demonstrated a relative enhancement of extracellular glucosidase implying that, in more acidic conditions, polymer hydrolysis may be diverted towards polysaccharide degradation, making simple sugars more available for bacterial growth [139].”
• Mechanisms of Microbial Carbon Sequestration in the Ocean - Future Research Directions (2014, background): “The activity of bacterial protease, glucosidase and leucine-aminopeptidase is also stimulated by higherpCO2 (Grossart et al., 2006; Piontek et al., 2010, 2013).”
• The biological pump in a high CO 2 world (2012, background): “For example, glucosidase activity appears accelerated at higher hydrogen ion concentrations (Piontek et al. 2010), although the effect is not always visible (Grossart et al. 2006).”
• Effect of ocean acidification on microbial diversity and on microbe-driven biogeochemistry and ecosystem functioning (2010, background): “…et al. (2007) Hutchins et al. (2007) Hutchins et al. (2007) Levitan et al. (2007) Barcelos e Ramos et al. (2007) Piontek et al. (2010) Piontek et al. (2010) Tanaka et al. (2008)* Grossart et al. (2005)* Grossart et al. (2005)* Grossart et al. (2005)* Delille et al. (2005)* Egge et al.…”
• Ocean acidification and marine microorganisms : responses and consequences (2015, background): “However, it is speculated that changes in community structure may be due to increase in polysaccharide synthesis with simultaneous increase in the activity of extracellular enzymes in biofilm (Piontek et al., 2010).”