Effects of nutrient limitation on cell growth, TEP production and aggregate formation of marine Synechococcus

Deng, Wei; Cruz, Bianca; Neuer, Susanne

doi:10.3354/ame01803

Cited by 41 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Phytoplankton are major TEP producers in the ocean, although HPs are also able to produce TEPs (Biddanda, 1986;Stoderegger and Herndl, 1998;Passow, 2002b;Ortega-Retuerta et al, 2010). Some phytoplankton groups that have been shown to produce TEPs include cyanobacteria (Grossart et al, 1998;Mazuecos, 2015;Deng et al, 2016); diatoms (Passow and Alldredge, 1994;Mari and Kiorboe, 1996;Passow, 2002b); dinoflagellates (Passow and Alldredge, 1994); Prymnesiophyceae, including coccolithophores (Riebesell et al, 1995;Engel, 2004;Leblanc et al, 2009); and Cryptomonads . Other organisms such as Posidonia oceanica (Iuculano et al, 2017a), zooplankton (Passow and Alldredge, 1999;Prieto et al, 2001) and benthic suspension feeders (Heinonen et al, 2007) have also been identified as TEP producers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Main drivers of transparent exopolymer particle distribution across the surface Atlantic Ocean

Zamanillo¹,

Ortega−Retuerta

Nunes³

et al. 2019

Biogeosciences

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Abstract. Transparent exopolymer particles (TEPs) are a class of gel particles, produced mainly by microorganisms, which play important roles in biogeochemical processes such as carbon cycling and export. TEPs (a) are colonized by carbon-consuming microbes; (b) mediate aggregation and sinking of organic matter and organisms, thereby contributing to the biological carbon pump; and (c) accumulate in the surface microlayer (SML) and affect air–sea gas exchange. The first step to evaluate the global influence of TEPs in these processes is the prediction of TEP occurrence in the ocean. Yet, little is known about the physical and biological variables that drive their abundance, particularly in the open ocean. Here we describe the horizontal TEP distribution, along with physical and biological variables, in surface waters along a north–south transect in the Atlantic Ocean during October–November 2014. Two main regions were separated due to remarkable differences: the open Atlantic Ocean (OAO, n=30), and the Southwestern Atlantic Shelf (SWAS, n=10). TEP concentration in the entire transect ranged 18.3–446.8 µg XG eq L−1 and averaged 117.1±119.8 µg XG eq L−1, with the maximum concentrations in the SWAS and in a station located at the edge of the Canary Coastal Upwelling (CU), and the highest TEP to chlorophyll a (TEP:Chl a) ratios in the OAO (183±56) and CU (1760). TEPs were significantly and positively related to Chl a and phytoplankton biomass, expressed in terms of C, along the entire transect. In the OAO, TEPs were positively related to some phytoplankton groups, mainly Synechococcus. They were negatively related to the previous 24 h averaged solar irradiance, suggesting that sunlight, particularly UV radiation, is more a sink than a source for TEP. Multiple regression analyses showed the combined positive effect of phytoplankton and heterotrophic prokaryotes (HPs) on TEP distribution in the OAO. In the SWAS, TEPs were positively related to high nucleic acid-containing prokaryotic cells and total phytoplankton biomass, but not to any particular phytoplankton group. Estimated TEP–carbon constituted an important portion of the particulate organic carbon pool in the entire transect (28 %–110 %), generally higher than the phytoplankton and HP carbon shares, which highlights the importance of TEPs in the cycling of organic matter in the ocean.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Main drivers of transparent exopolymer particle distribution across the surface Atlantic Ocean

Zamanillo¹,

Ortega−Retuerta

Nunes³

et al. 2019

Biogeosciences

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“…While other phytoplankton groups and heterotrophic bacteria are able to produce TEP (Cruz and Neuer 2019), TEP production was not associated to picoeukaryotes in the present experiment. Therefore, TEP dynamics were largely attributable to Synechococcus, a major producer of TEP (Ortega-Retuerta et al 2019) and particularly in nutrient limited conditions, where Synechococcus related TEP production has been associated to an increase in the settling velocity of the cell aggregates (Deng et al 2016).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microplastics increase the marine production of particulate forms of organic matter

Galgani

Tsapakis

Pitta

et al. 2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Microplastics are a major environmental challenge, being ubiquitous and persistent as to represent a new component in all marine environments. As any biogenic particle, microplastics provide surfaces for microbial growth and biofilm production, which largely consists of carbohydrates and proteins. Biofilms influence microbial activity and modify particle buoyancy, and therefore control the fate of microplastics at sea. In a simulated 'plastic ocean', three mesocosms containing oligotrophic seawater were amended with polystyrene microbeads and compared to three control mesocosms. The evolution of organic matter, microbial communities and nutrient concentrations was monitored over 12 days. The results indicated that microplastics increased the production of organic carbon and its aggregation into gel particulates. The observed increase of gel-like organics has implications on the marine biological pump as well as the transport of microplastics in the ocean.

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“…Cultures of the diatom Thalasiosira weissflogii (along with other species) were found to have much higher TEP concentrations during the later growth phases, although the increase in TEP was much more moderate when it was normalized by cell concentration [16]. Similarly, higher TEP production per cell has been observed for Synechococcus under nutrient limitation [17]. Other experiments with Thalasiosira weissflogii found that TEP production may also depend on growth rate [18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Effects of Phytoplankton Growth Phase on Settling Properties of Marine Aggregates

Prairie

Montgomery

Proctor

et al. 2019

JMSE

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Marine snow aggregates often dominate carbon export from the surface layer to the deep ocean. Therefore, understanding the formation and properties of aggregates is essential to the study of the biological pump. Previous studies have observed a relationship between phytoplankton growth phase and the production of transparent exopolymer particles (TEP), the sticky particles secreted by phytoplankton that act as the glue during aggregate formation. In this experimental study, we aim to determine the effect of phytoplankton growth phase on properties related to aggregate settling. Cultures of the diatom Thalassiosira weissflogii were grown to four different growth phases and incubated in rotating cylindrical tanks to form aggregates. Aggregate excess density and delayed settling time through a sharp density gradient were quantified for the aggregates that were formed, and relative TEP concentration was measured for cultures before aggregate formation. Compared to the first growth phase, later phytoplankton growth phases were found to have higher relative TEP concentration and aggregates with lower excess densities and longer delayed settling times. These findings may suggest that, although particle concentrations are higher at later stages of phytoplankton blooms, aggregates may be less dense and sink slower, thus affecting carbon export.

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Effects of nutrient limitation on cell growth, TEP production and aggregate formation of marine Synechococcus

Cited by 41 publications

References 67 publications

Main drivers of transparent exopolymer particle distribution across the surface Atlantic Ocean

Main drivers of transparent exopolymer particle distribution across the surface Atlantic Ocean

Microplastics increase the marine production of particulate forms of organic matter

Effects of Phytoplankton Growth Phase on Settling Properties of Marine Aggregates

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