Temperature dependence of plankton community metabolism in the subtropical and tropical oceans

Lara S. Garcia-Corral, Johnna M. Holding, Paloma Carrillo-de-Albornoz, Alexandra Steckbauer, María Pérez-Lorenzo, Nuria Navarro, Pablo Serret, Josep M. Gasol, Xose Anxelu G. Moran, Marta Estrada, Eugenio Fraile-Nuez, Verónica Benítez-Barrios, Susana Agusti, Carlos M. Duarte

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12 Scopus citations

Abstract

Here we assess the temperature dependence of the metabolic rates (gross primary production (GPP), community respiration (CR), and the ratio GPP/CR) of oceanic plankton communities. We compile data from 133 stations of the Malaspina 2010 Expedition, distributed among the subtropical and tropical Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. We used the in vitro technique to measured metabolic rates during 24 h incubations at three different sampled depths: surface, 20%, and 1% of the photosynthetically active radiation measured at surface. We also measured the % of ultraviolet B radiation (UVB) penetrating at surface waters. GPP and CR rates increased with warming, albeit different responses were observed for each sampled depth. The overall GPP/CR ratio declined with warming. Higher activation energies (E-a) were derived for both processes (GPP(Chla) = 0.97; CRChla = 1.26; CRHPA = 0.95 eV) compared to those previously reported. The Indian Ocean showed the highest E-a (GPP(Chla) = 1.70; CRChla = 1.48; CRHPA = 0.57 eV), while the Atlantic Ocean showed the lowest (GPP(Chla) = 0.86; CRChla = 0.77; CRHPA = -0.13 eV). We believe that the difference between previous assessments and the ones presented here can be explained by the overrepresentation of Atlantic communities in the previous data sets. We found that UVB radiation also affects the temperature dependence of surface GPP, which decreased rather than increased under high levels of UVB. Ocean warming, which causes stratification and oligotrophication of the subtropical and tropical oceans, may lead to reduced surface GPP as a result of increased penetration of UVB radiation.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1141-1154
Number of pages14
JournalGlobal Biogeochemical Cycles
Volume31
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 17 2017

Bibliographical note

KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledgements: This is a contribution to the Malaspina Expedition 2010, funded by the INGENIO 2010 CONSOLIDER Program (CDS2008-00077) of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. We thank the captain and crew of R/V Hesperides and the UTM for their technical support, all the participants of the Malaspina Expedition for providing CTD data and general support, and to Lopez-Urrutia for the help given in the data exploration. L. S. Garcia-Corral was supported by a JAE predoc fellowship from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the BBVA Foundation, Spain. Raw data set can be accessed and downloaded free from the data repository PANGAEA (R) (www.pangaea.de) under the link https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.876455.

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