SignificanceEmpirical evidence for the response of ecosystem functioning to the combined effects of warming and biodiversity loss is scarce. We show that warming and biodiversity loss interact synergistically, impairing the functioning of microbial communities. We found that as temperatures departed from ambient conditions more species were required to maintain ecosystem functioning. Our results suggest interspecific complementarity increased under thermal stress and high-diversity communities that seemed functionally redundant at ambient temperature became more functionally unique as temperatures changed. Biodiversity may therefore be even more important than previously anticipated when considering the impacts of multiple facets of environmental change.

The dark ocean is one of the largest biomes on Earth, with critical roles in organic matter remineralization and global carbon sequestration. Despite its recognized importance, little is known about some key microbial players, such as the community of heterotrophic protists (HP), which are likely the main consumers of prokaryotic biomass. To investigate this microbial component at a global scale, we determined their abundance and biomass in deepwater column samples from the Malaspina 2010 circumnavigation using a combination of epifluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry. HP were ubiquitously found at all depths investigated down to 4000 m. HP abundances decreased with depth, from an average of 72 ± 19 cells ml À 1 in mesopelagic waters down to 11 ± 1 cells ml À 1 in bathypelagic waters, whereas their total biomass decreased from 280±46 to 50±14 pg C ml À 1 . The parameters that better explained the variance of HP abundance were depth and prokaryote abundance, and to lesser extent oxygen concentration. The generally good correlation with prokaryotic abundance suggested active grazing of HP on prokaryotes. On a finer scale, the prokaryote:HP abundance ratio varied at a regional scale, and sites with the highest ratios exhibited a larger contribution of fungi molecular signal. Our study is a step forward towards determining the relationship between HP and their environment, unveiling their importance as players in the dark ocean's microbial food web.

Viral activity exerts a particularly important role in the dark ocean across the global tropical and subtropical oceans.

Marine heatwaves can lead to rapid changes in entire communities, including in the case of shallow coral reefs the potential overgrowth of algae. Here we tested experimentally the differential thermal tolerance between algae and coral species from the Red Sea through the measurement of thermal performance curves and the assessment of thermal limits. Differences across functional groups (algae vs corals) were apparent for two key thermal performance metrics. First, two reef-associated algae species (Halimeda tuna and Turbinaria ornata,) had higher lethal thermal limits than two coral species (Pocillopora verrucosa and Stylophora pistillata) conferring those species of algae with a clear advantage during heatwaves by surpassing the thermal threshold of coral survival. Second, the coral species had generally greater deactivation energies for net and gross primary production rates compared to the algae species, indicating greater thermal sensitivity in corals once the optimum temperature is exceeded. Our field surveys in the Red Sea reefs before and after the marine heatwave of 2015 show a change in benthic cover mainly in the southern reefs, where there was a decrease in coral cover and a concomitant increase in algae abundance, mainly turf algae. Our laboratory and field observations indicate that a proliferation of algae might be expected on Red Sea coral reefs with future ocean warming.

SummaryThe 'cytometric diversity' of phytoplankton communities has been studied based on singleThis article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as doi: 10.1111/1462-2920.12984 Accepted ArticleThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.cell properties, but the applicability of this method to characterize bacterioplankton has been unexplored. Here, we analysed seasonal changes in cytometric diversity of marine bacterioplankton along a decadal time-series at three coastal stations in the Southern Bay of Biscay. Shannon-Weaver diversity estimates and Bray-Curtis similarities obtained by cytometric and molecular (16S rRNA tag sequencing) methods were significantly correlated in samples from a 3.5-year monthly time-series. Both methods showed a consistent cyclical pattern in the diversity of surface bacterial communities with maximal values in winter. The analysis of the highly resolved flow cytometry time-series across the vertical profile showed that water column mixing was a key factor explaining the seasonal changes in bacterial composition and the winter increase in bacterial diversity in coastal surface waters. Due to its low cost and short processing time as compared to genetic methods, the cytometric diversity approach represents a useful complementary tool in the macroecology of aquatic microbes.