CO2 and inorganic nutrient enrichment affect the performance of a calcifying green alga and its noncalcifying epiphyte

DOI

Ocean acidification studies in the past decade have greatly improved our knowledge of how calcifying organisms respond to increased surface ocean CO2 levels. It has become evident that, for many organisms, nutrient availability is an important factor that influences their physiological responses and competitive interactions with other species. Therefore, we tested how simulated ocean acidification and eutrophication (nitrate and phosphate enrichment) interact to affect the physiology and ecology of a calcifying chlorophyte macroalga (Halimeda opuntia (L.) J.V. Lamouroux) and its common noncalcifying epiphyte (Dictyota sp.) in a 4-week fully crossed multifactorial experiment. Inorganic nutrient enrichment (+NP) had a strong influence on all responses measured with the exception of net calcification. Elevated CO2 alone significantly decreased electron transport rates of the photosynthetic apparatus and resulted in phosphorus limitation in both species, but had no effect on oxygen production or respiration. The combination of CO2 and +NP significantly increased electron transport rates in both species. While +NP alone stimulated H. opuntia growth rates, Dictyota growth was significantly stimulated by nutrient enrichment only at elevated CO2, which led to the highest biomass ratios of Dictyota to Halimeda. Our results suggest that inorganic nutrient enrichment alone stimulates several aspects of H. opuntia physiology, but nutrient enrichment at a CO2 concentration predicted for the end of the century benefits Dictyota sp. and hinders its calcifying basibiont H. opuntia.

In order to allow full comparability with other ocean acidification data sets, the R package seacarb (Gattuso et al, 2015) was used to compute a complete and consistent set of carbonate system variables, as described by Nisumaa et al. (2010). In this dataset the original values were archived in addition with the recalculated parameters (see related PI). The date of carbonate chemistry calculation is 2015-06-01.

Supplement to: Hofmann, Laurie C; Bischof, Kai; Baggini, Cecilia; Johnson, Andrew; Koop-Jakobsen, Ketil; Teichberg, Mirta (2015): CO2 and inorganic nutrient enrichment affect the performance of a calcifying green alga and its noncalcifying epiphyte. Oecologia, 177(4), 1157-1169

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.847446
Related Identifier https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-015-3242-5
Related Identifier https://cran.r-project.org/package=seacarb
Metadata Access https://ws.pangaea.de/oai/provider?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=datacite4&identifier=oai:pangaea.de:doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.847446
Provenance
Creator Hofmann, Laurie C ORCID logo; Bischof, Kai ORCID logo; Baggini, Cecilia; Johnson, Andrew ORCID logo; Koop-Jakobsen, Ketil ORCID logo; Teichberg, Mirta (ORCID: 0000-0003-1586-738X)
Publisher PANGAEA
Contributor Yang, Yan
Publication Year 2015
Rights Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
OpenAccess true
Representation
Resource Type Supplementary Dataset; Dataset
Format text/tab-separated-values
Size 23003 data points
Discipline Earth System Research
Spatial Coverage (-68.973 LON, 12.125 LAT)
Temporal Coverage Begin 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z
Temporal Coverage End 2012-01-31T00:00:00Z