Intraspecific trait variation and trade‐offs within and across populations of a toxic dinoflagellate

Abstract

Intraspecific trait diversity can promote the success of a species, as complementarity of functional traits within populations may enhance its competitive success and facilitates resilience to changing environmental conditions. Here, we experimentally determined the variation and relationships between traits in 15 strains of the toxic dinoflagellate Alexandrium ostenfeldii derived from two populations. Measured traits included growth rate, cell size, elemental composition, nitrogen uptake kinetics, toxin production and allelochemical potency. Our results demonstrate substantial variation in all analysed traits both within and across populations, particularly in nitrogen affinity, which was even comparable to interspecific variation across phytoplankton species. We found distinct trade-offs between maximum nitrogen uptake rate and affinity, and between defensive and competitive traits. Furthermore, we identified differences in trait variation between the genetically similar populations. The observed high trait variation may facilitate development and resilience of harmful algal blooms under dynamic environmental conditions.

Meta‐analysis reveals enhanced growth of marine harmful algae from temperate regions with warming and elevated CO2 levels

“…Indeed, various harmful algal populations were shown to possess a very high genetic and phenotypic variation (Alpermann, Tillmann, Beszteri, Cembella, & John, 2010;Brandenburg et al, 2018;Medlin, Lange, & Nothig, 2000), which will allow them to adapt to changing environmental conditions (Violle et al, 2012). Though HABs are mostly dominated by one phytoplankton species, culture experiments are not fully able to reflect the vast complexity of natural communities, as discussed above, nor that of populations.…”

Phytoplankton growth and stoichiometric responses to warming, nutrient addition and grazing depend on lake productivity and cell size

“…Optimal N:P ratios vary across phytoplankton taxa and reflect nutrient requirements determined by their cellular machinery (Klausmeier, Litchman, Daufresne, & Levin, 2004), as well as the degree of stoichiometric plasticity, which is influenced by nutrient storage capacity (Hall, Smith, Lytle, & Leibold, 2005). However, phytoplankton N:P ratios have also been shown to vary widely within a population of the same species under unconstrained growth conditions (Brandenburg et al, 2018), indicating that N:P ratios are regulated genetically as well as by a suite of biotic and abiotic factors. However, phytoplankton N:P ratios have also been shown to vary widely within a population of the same species under unconstrained growth conditions (Brandenburg et al, 2018), indicating that N:P ratios are regulated genetically as well as by a suite of biotic and abiotic factors.…”

Consistency in microbiomes in cultures of Alexandrium species isolated from brackish and marine waters

“…Dinoflagellates of the genus Alexandrium are reported from many geographical areas in the world's oceans (Anderson et al ., ) and are known to release bioactive compounds, potent toxins (Anderson et al ., ) and allelochemicals that are poorly chemically characterized (Ma et al ., ), which can interact with microbial food web dynamics (Weissbach et al ., ). Alexandrium populations display a large intraspecific phenotypic diversity, in terms of growth rate (Suikkanen et al ., ; Brandenburg et al ., ), toxin production (Tillmann et al ., ; Suikkanen et al ., ; Martens et al ., ; Brandenburg et al ., ), allelochemical activity (Hakanen et al ., ; Brandenburg et al ., ), nutritional strategies (Glibert and Legrand, ) and ability to bioluminesce (Valiadi et al ., ). Due to this large phenotypic diversity Alexandrium is an ideal model organism for investigating the consistency of microbiomes over host specific, intraspecific or environmental variations (Tahvanainen et al ., ; Suikkanen et al ., ; Hakanen et al ., ).…”