Competition between cyanobacteria and green algae at low versus elevated CO2: who will win, and why?

Ji, Xing; Verspagen, Jolanda M. H.; Stomp, Maayke; Huisman, Jef

doi:10.1093/jxb/erx027

Cited by 100 publications

(76 citation statements)

References 81 publications

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“…In the present study, if DIC affinity were all that defined dominance amongst mixed populations, the diatoms should be competitive against C. raciborskii , however, as found in the work by Ji et al. () it is likely another factor, this time temperature, plays a defining role.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 53%

“…Perhaps the competitive advantage of high rates of DIC accumulation and storage, a necessity due to the low CO 2 affinity of the cyanobacterial RuBisCO explains its lack of evolutionary kinetic improvement during the millions of years since oxygen has been present in the atmosphere, at least in strains capable of bloom formation in stratified waters. Despite their more active CCMs, cyanobacteria were shown not to dominate the green algae studied by Ji et al (2017), while other factors, such as light, had an important impact on species dominance. In the present study, if DIC affinity were all that defined dominance amongst mixed populations, the diatoms should be competitive against C. raciborskii, however, as found in the work by Ji et al (2017) it is likely another factor, this time temperature, plays a defining role.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…Despite their more active CCMs, cyanobacteria were shown not to dominate the green algae studied by Ji et al (2017), while other factors, such as light, had an important impact on species dominance. In the present study, if DIC affinity were all that defined dominance amongst mixed populations, the diatoms should be competitive against C. raciborskii, however, as found in the work by Ji et al (2017) it is likely another factor, this time temperature, plays a defining role.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

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Carbon acquisition characteristics of six microalgal species isolated from a subtropical reservoir: potential implications for species succession

Lines

Beardall

2018

Journal of Phycology

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CO levels in freshwater systems can fluctuate widely, potentially influencing photosynthetic rates and growth of phytoplankton. Given the right conditions, this can lead to bloom formation and affect water quality. This study investigated the acquisition of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) by six species of microalgae, a cyanobacterium Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii, the diatoms Cyclotella sp., Nitzschia sp., and the green algae Stichococcus sp., Staurastrum sp., and Monoraphidium sp., all isolated from a subtropical reservoir in Australia. Carbon acquisition characteristics, specifically the affinity for DIC, internal pH, and internal DIC concentrations were measured. Affinities for CO ( ) ranged between 0.7 and 6 μM CO . This was considerably lower than air-equilibrated surface water CO concentrations, and below reported affinities for CO of RuBisCO suggesting operation of active carbon dioxide concentrating mechanisms (CCMs) in all species. Internal pH was lowest for Cyclotella sp. at 7.19, and highest for Staurastrum sp., at 7.71. At 180 μM external DIC, ratios of internal:external CO ranged from 2.5 for Nitzschia sp. to 14 in C. raciborskii. Internal HCO concentration showed a linear relationship with surface area to biovolume ratio (SA:Vol). We hypothesized that species with a higher SA:Vol suffer more from diffusive escape of CO , thus storage of DIC as bicarbonate is favored in these strains. For C. raciborskii, under stratified summer conditions, its strong CCM, and resilient photosynthetic characteristics may contribute to its bloom forming capacity.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 53%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

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Carbon acquisition characteristics of six microalgal species isolated from a subtropical reservoir: potential implications for species succession

Lines

Beardall

2018

Journal of Phycology

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“…The idea that partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO 2 ) can affect phytoplankton competition is not new (Raven & Johnston, ) but it is still unclear to what extent CO 2 might affect the community composition of lakes. Several studies were able to correctly predict competitive outcomes based on population growth rates in monoculture at different levels of pCO 2 (Ji, Verspagen, Stomp, & Huisman, ; Low‐Décarie, Fussmann, & Bell, ; Verschoor et al, ). However, these studies make contrasting predictions about the effects of CO 2 enrichment on phytoplankton communities in general.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intra‐annual variation of phytoplankton community responses to factorial N, P, and CO₂ enrichment in a temperate mesotrophic lake

2020

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Across primary producer communities in different lakes, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) can exhibit many different patterns of limitation. Here, we look at the intra‐annual variability of these patterns in a single lake. Furthermore, we investigate whether a third resource, carbon dioxide (CO2) can have significant effects on phytoplankton biomass and community composition. We performed five in situ lacustrine mesocosm experiments at different times of the year. In each experiment, we had a factorial design with two levels of N, P and CO2 enrichment (no enrichment or double lake concentrations for N and P and atmospheric (400 ppm) and c. 1,000 ppm for CO2) resulting in a total of eight treatments. Mesocosms of c. 1,600 L were suspended in a temperate, mesotrophic lake (Lac Hertel, Canada). Each experiment lasted 2 weeks and chlorophyll a biomass, coarse chemotaxonomic community composition (measured using fluorometry), and several environmental variables were recorded at a minimum of four time points. We found that the limiting, synergistic, and community composition effects of N and P varied between experiments. TN:TP ratios explained, in part, some of this variability, along with insolation and water temperature. Despite relatively high levels of CO2 in the control mesocosms, we found a constant synergistic effect of CO2 with N. In combination with the synergistic effect of P with N found in some experiments, this provides support for CO2 as one of the multiple limiting resources in nutrient‐enriched systems. This finding could have implications for eutrophic lakes exposed to increasing concentrations of CO2. We also found that the effects of CO2 on community composition varied intra‐annually. Thus, we conclude that generalised predictions about the effect of CO2 on community composition at a coarse chemotaxonomic scale are unlikely to hold, but predictions specific to season and system are likely to be reliable.

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“…A common approach in tests of resource competition theory is to select a limited number of isolated species that are grown in monoculture and competition experiments (e.g., Tilman 1977, Passarge et al 2006, Ji et al 2017. A common approach in tests of resource competition theory is to select a limited number of isolated species that are grown in monoculture and competition experiments (e.g., Tilman 1977, Passarge et al 2006, Ji et al 2017.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Competition for nutrients and light: testing advances in resource competition with a natural phytoplankton community

Burson

Stomp

Greenwell

et al. 2018

Ecology

Self Cite

143

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A key challenge in ecology is to understand how nutrients and light affect the biodiversity and community structure of phytoplankton and plant communities. According to resource competition models, ratios of limiting nutrients are major determinants of species composition. At high nutrient levels, however, species interactions may shift to competition for light, which might make nutrient ratios less relevant. The "nutrient-load hypothesis" merges these two perspectives, by extending the classic model of competition for two nutrients to include competition for light. Here, we test five key predictions of the nutrient-load hypothesis using multispecies competition experiments. A marine phytoplankton community sampled from the North Sea was inoculated in laboratory chemostats provided with different nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) loads to induce either single resource limitation or co-limitation of N, P, and light. Four of the five predictions were validated by the experiments. In particular, different resource limitations favored the dominance of different species. Increasing nutrient loads caused changes in phytoplankton species composition, even if the N:P ratio of the nutrient loads remained constant, by shifting the species interactions from competition for nutrients to competition for light. In all treatments, small species became dominant whereas larger species were competitively excluded, supporting the common view that small cell size provides a competitive advantage under resource-limited conditions. Contrary to expectation, all treatments led to coexistence of diatoms, cyanobacteria and green algae, resulting in a higher diversity of species than predicted by theory. Because the coexisting species comprised three phyla with different photosynthetic pigments, we speculate that niche differentiation in the light spectrum might play a role. Our results show that mechanistic resource competition models that integrate nutrient-based and light-based approaches provide an important step forward to understand and predict how changing nutrient loads affect community composition.

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Competition between cyanobacteria and green algae at low versus elevated CO2: who will win, and why?

Abstract: Contrary to the current paradigm, competition experiments showed that green algae defeated cyanobacteria at low CO2 levels, whereas cyanobacteria with high-flux carbon uptake systems became stronger competitors at elevated CO2.

Cited by 100 publications

References 81 publications

Carbon acquisition characteristics of six microalgal species isolated from a subtropical reservoir: potential implications for species succession

Carbon acquisition characteristics of six microalgal species isolated from a subtropical reservoir: potential implications for species succession

Intra‐annual variation of phytoplankton community responses to factorial N, P, and CO₂ enrichment in a temperate mesotrophic lake

Competition for nutrients and light: testing advances in resource competition with a natural phytoplankton community

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Competition between cyanobacteria and green algae at low versus elevated CO2: who will win, and why?

Abstract: Contrary to the current paradigm, competition experiments showed that green algae defeated cyanobacteria at low CO2 levels, whereas cyanobacteria with high-flux carbon uptake systems became stronger competitors at elevated CO2.

Cited by 100 publications

References 81 publications

Carbon acquisition characteristics of six microalgal species isolated from a subtropical reservoir: potential implications for species succession

Carbon acquisition characteristics of six microalgal species isolated from a subtropical reservoir: potential implications for species succession

Intra‐annual variation of phytoplankton community responses to factorial N, P, and CO2 enrichment in a temperate mesotrophic lake

Competition for nutrients and light: testing advances in resource competition with a natural phytoplankton community

Contact Info

Product

Resources

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Intra‐annual variation of phytoplankton community responses to factorial N, P, and CO₂ enrichment in a temperate mesotrophic lake