1Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad
Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
2Instituto Milenio de Oceanografía de Chile, Concepción, Chile
3UMI 3614 Evolutionary Biology and Ecology of Algae, CNRS, Sorbonne
Université,
Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Universidad Austral de Chile, Station Biologique de
Roscoff, 29680 Roscoff, France
4Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, OX1 3RB
Oxford, UK
5CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, GP.O. Box 1538, Hobart 7001,
TAS, Australia
6Alfred Wegener Institute – Helmholtz Centre for Polar and
Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany
7Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity
(HIFMB), Ammerländer Heerstr. 231, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany
8Centro de Investigación en Ecosistemas de la Patagonia (CIEP),
Coyhaique, Chile
9Centro de Investigación: Dinámica de Ecosistemas marinos de
Altas Latitudes (IDEAL), Punta Arenas, Chile
1Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad
Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
2Instituto Milenio de Oceanografía de Chile, Concepción, Chile
3UMI 3614 Evolutionary Biology and Ecology of Algae, CNRS, Sorbonne
Université,
Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Universidad Austral de Chile, Station Biologique de
Roscoff, 29680 Roscoff, France
4Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, OX1 3RB
Oxford, UK
5CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, GP.O. Box 1538, Hobart 7001,
TAS, Australia
6Alfred Wegener Institute – Helmholtz Centre for Polar and
Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany
7Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity
(HIFMB), Ammerländer Heerstr. 231, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany
8Centro de Investigación en Ecosistemas de la Patagonia (CIEP),
Coyhaique, Chile
9Centro de Investigación: Dinámica de Ecosistemas marinos de
Altas Latitudes (IDEAL), Punta Arenas, Chile
Correspondence: Peter von Dassow (pvondassow@bio.puc.cl)
Received: 18 Jul 2017 – Discussion started: 06 Sep 2017 – Revised: 25 Jan 2018 – Accepted: 07 Feb 2018 – Published: 14 Mar 2018
Abstract. Marine multicellular organisms inhabiting waters with natural high fluctuations in pH appear more tolerant to acidification than conspecifics occurring in nearby stable waters, suggesting that environments of fluctuating pH hold genetic reservoirs for adaptation of key groups to ocean acidification (OA). The abundant and cosmopolitan calcifying phytoplankton Emiliania huxleyi exhibits a range of morphotypes with varying degrees of coccolith mineralization. We show that E. huxleyi populations in the naturally acidified upwelling waters of the eastern South Pacific, where pH drops below 7.8 as is predicted for the global surface ocean by the year 2100, are dominated by exceptionally over-calcified morphotypes whose distal coccolith shield can be almost solid calcite. Shifts in morphotype composition of E. huxleyi populations correlate with changes in carbonate system parameters. We tested if these correlations indicate that the hyper-calcified morphotype is adapted to OA. In experimental exposures to present-day vs. future pCO2 (400 vs. 1200 µatm), the over-calcified morphotypes showed the same growth inhibition (−29.1±6.3 %) as moderately calcified morphotypes isolated from non-acidified water (−30.7±8.8 %). Under the high-CO2–low-pH condition, production rates of particulate organic carbon (POC) increased, while production rates of particulate inorganic carbon (PIC) were maintained or decreased slightly (but not significantly), leading to lowered PIC ∕ POC ratios in all strains. There were no consistent correlations of response intensity with strain origin. The high-CO2–low-pH condition affected coccolith morphology equally or more strongly in over-calcified strains compared to moderately calcified strains. High-CO2–low-pH conditions appear not to directly select for exceptionally over-calcified morphotypes over other morphotypes, but perhaps indirectly by ecologically correlated factors. More generally, these results suggest that oceanic planktonic microorganisms, despite their rapid turnover and large population sizes, do not necessarily exhibit adaptations to naturally high-CO2 upwellings, and this ubiquitous coccolithophore may be near the limit of its capacity to adapt to ongoing ocean acidification.
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Coccolithophores are microalgae which produce much of the calcium carbonate in the ocean, important to making organic carbon sink to great depths, and they may be negatively affected by the decline in ocean pH as CO2 rises. Can these important microbes adapt? This study found that coccolithophores inhabiting waters naturally low in pH may have already reached the limit of their ability to adapt. This suggests that how the ocean's biota sequester carbon will be strongly affected in the future.
Coccolithophores are microalgae which produce much of the calcium carbonate in the ocean,...