Ecological niches of open ocean phytoplankton taxa

Brun, Philipp; Vogt, Meike; Payne, Mark; Gruber, Nicolas; O'Brien, Colleen; Buitenhuis, Erik T.; Quéré, Corinne Le; Leblanc, Karine; Luo, Ya‐Wei

doi:10.1002/lno.10074

Cited by 107 publications

(99 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…The temperature span at which growth was positive for Prochlorococcus sp. presented in our study is consistent with the quartile temperature span of the realized ecological niche (16-25 • C) in the study by Brun et al (2015) which uses observations from MAREDAT (Buitenhuis et al, 2013). Unfortunately, they…”

Section: Picophytoplankton and Climate Warmingsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…However, the distribution of picoprokaryotes is inversely related to that of picoeukaryotes in the natural environment (Buitenhuis et al, 2012), and these distributions are correlated with nitrogen concentration and depth of the euphotic layer (Bouman et al, 2011). In addition, temperature was also shown to be an important predictor for the realized ecological niche space of diverse phytoplankton groups (Brun et al, 2015). The temperature span at which growth was positive for Prochlorococcus sp.…”

Section: Picophytoplankton and Climate Warmingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Physiological Response of Picophytoplankton to Temperature and Its Model Representation

2016

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Picophytoplankton account for most of the marine (sub-)tropical phytoplankton biomass and primary productivity. The contribution to biomass among plankton functional types (PFTs) could shift with climate warming, in part as a result of different physiological responses to temperature. To model these responses, Eppley's empirical relationships have been well established. However, they have not yet been statistically validated for individual PFTs. Here, we examine the physiological response of nine strains of picophytoplankton to temperature; three strains of picoprokaryotes and six strains of picoeukaryotes. We conduct laboratory experiments at 13 temperatures between -0.5 and 33 • C and measure the maximum growth rates and the chlorophyll a to carbon ratios. We then statistically validate two hypotheses formulated by Eppley in 1972: The response of maximum growth rates to temperature (1) of individual strains can be represented by an optimum function, and (2) of the whole phytoplankton group can be represented by an exponential function Eppley (1972). We also quantify the temperature-related parameters. We find that the temperature span at which growth is positive is more constrained for picoprokaryotes (13.7-27 • C), than for picoeukaryotes (2.8-32.4 • C). However, the modeled temperature tolerance range ( T) follows an unimodal function of cell size for the strains examined here. Thus, the temperature tolerance range may act in conjunction with the maximum growth rate to explain the picophytoplankton community size structure in correlation with ocean temperature. The maximum growth rates obtained by a 99th quantile regression for the group of picophytoplankton or picoprokaryotes are generally lower than the rates estimated by Eppley. However, we find temperature-dependencies (Q 10 ) of 2.3 and of 4.9 for the two groups, respectively. Both of these values are higher than the Q 10 of 1.88 estimated by Eppley and could have substantial influence on the biomass distribution in models, in particular if picoprokaryotes were considered an independent PFT. We also quantify the increase of the chlorophyll a to carbon ratios with increasing temperature due to acclimation. These parameters provide essential and validated physiological information to explore the response of marine ecosystems to a warming climate using ocean biogeochemistry models.

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Section: Picophytoplankton and Climate Warmingsupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Picophytoplankton and Climate Warmingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Physiological Response of Picophytoplankton to Temperature and Its Model Representation

2016

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“…S1). We present results only for a relatively robust set of CPR taxa having greater than 15 presence observations (22) and comparatively high SDM skill, defined here as having an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) greater than 0.7 (Supporting Information). We then performed a visual inspection of predicted ranges against CPR presence observations on a season by season basis to assess the robustness of these thresholds (Fig.…”

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confidence: 99%

Anthropogenic climate change drives shift and shuffle in North Atlantic phytoplankton communities

Barton

Irwin

Finkel

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

212

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Anthropogenic climate change has shifted the biogeography and phenology of many terrestrial and marine species. Marine phytoplankton communities appear sensitive to climate change, yet understanding of how individual species may respond to anthropogenic climate change remains limited. Here, using historical environmental and phytoplankton observations, we characterize the realized ecological niches for 87 North Atlantic diatom and dinoflagellate taxa and project changes in species biogeography between mean historical and future (2051-2100) ocean conditions. We find that the central positions of the core range of 74% of taxa shift poleward at a median rate of 12.9 km per decade (km·dec), and 90% of taxa shift eastward at a median rate of 42.7 km·dec −1. The poleward shift is faster than previously reported for marine taxa, and the predominance of longitudinal shifts is driven by dynamic changes in multiple environmental drivers, rather than a strictly poleward, temperature-driven redistribution of ocean habitats. A century of climate change significantly shuffles community composition by a basin-wide median value of 16%, compared with seasonal variations of 46%. The North Atlantic phytoplankton community appears poised for marked shift and shuffle, which may have broad effects on food webs and biogeochemical cycles.arth system models (ESMs) generally indicate that greenhouse gas emissions may, over the coming century, lead to further acidification and warming of the ocean surface, increased surface stratification and decreased mixing depths, and weaker seasonal entrainment of deep nutrients essential for phytoplankton growth (1, 2). These global trends are seen in the North Atlantic, although regional variations are apparent (Fig. S1). Many models project that waters southeast of Greenland will become cooler, more stratified, and consequently nutrient-poor (1-3). Here, strong salinity-driven surface stratification arising from ice melt and enhanced precipitation over evaporation may weaken meridional overturning (4). The cooling here is associated with weaker transport of heat into the surface laterally and from below by convection but is also because stratified surface waters are exposed to the relatively cold atmosphere for a longer duration (5). Projected basin-scale changes in clouds and sea ice cover may also drive changes in light entering the ocean surface.These environmental changes may lead to pronounced regional changes in phytoplankton communities, overlying a global trend of decreasing primary production, weaker sinking flux of particulate carbon, and decreased energy flows between phytoplankton and fish (1, 2, 6). Although it is widely believed that marine organisms and ecosystems are sensitive to climate change (7-11), the climate response and drivers of change for individual phytoplankton species are not well known. The goal of this study is to estimate how anthropogenic climate change in the coming century may alter the biogeographies of many phytoplankton species commonly sampled in the subpolar...

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“…These attributes make them a key group for monitoring the impacts of climate change on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (Richardson, 2008). So far, SDMs have seldom been applied to study plankton biogeography, with only a handful of studies on phytoplankton (Irwin et al, 2012;Pinkernell and Beszteri, 2014;Brun et al, 2015;Rivero-Calle et al, 2015;Barton et al, 2016) and some more on zooplankton (e.g., Reygondeau and Beaugrand, 2011;Chust et al, 2014b;Villarino et al, 2015;Brun et al, 2016;Benedetti et al, in press). This is due not only to the limited data availability for model development, but also due to several unaddressed methodological issues.…”

Section: Species Distribution Modeling-running Before We Can Walk?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, neutral processes might similarly shape both population genetics and community patterns in plankton . The combination of data from time-series, global in situ observations and experiments on marine plankton provides a unique opportunity to characterize the niches of species (Brun et al, 2015) and to explore the relations between ecological niche characteristics (e.g., niche dissimilarity) and local species richness.…”

Section: Toward a Unified Theory Of Macroecologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Mare Incognitum: A Glimpse into Future Plankton Diversity and Ecology Research

et al. 2017

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With global climate change altering marine ecosystems, research on plankton ecology is likely to navigate uncharted seas. Yet, a staggering wealth of new plankton observations, integrated with recent advances in marine ecosystem modeling, may shed light on marine ecosystem structure and functioning. A EuroMarine foresight workshop on the "Impact of climate change on the distribution of plankton functional and phylogenetic diversity" (PlankDiv) identified five grand challenges for future plankton diversity and macroecology research: (1) What can we learn about plankton communities from the new wealth of high-throughput "omics" data? (2) What is the link between plankton diversity and ecosystem function? (3) How can species distribution models be adapted to represent plankton biogeography? (4) How will plankton biogeography be altered due to anthropogenic climate change? and (5) Can a new unifying theory of macroecology be developed based on plankton ecology studies? In this review, we discuss potential future avenues to address these questions, and challenges that need to be tackled along the way.

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Ecological niches of open ocean phytoplankton taxa

Cited by 107 publications

References 78 publications

The Physiological Response of Picophytoplankton to Temperature and Its Model Representation

The Physiological Response of Picophytoplankton to Temperature and Its Model Representation

Anthropogenic climate change drives shift and shuffle in North Atlantic phytoplankton communities

Mare Incognitum: A Glimpse into Future Plankton Diversity and Ecology Research

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