Isotopic fractionation of carbon during uptake by phytoplankton across the South Atlantic subtropical convergence

Tuerena, Robyn E.; Ganeshram, Raja S.; Humphreys, Matthew P.; Browning, Thomas J.; Bouman, Heather; Piotrowski, Alexander P.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-3621-2019

Articles | Volume 16, issue 18

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-3621-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-3621-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 16, issue 18

Research article

|

24 Sep 2019

Research article |

| 24 Sep 2019

Isotopic fractionation of carbon during uptake by phytoplankton across the South Atlantic subtropical convergence

Robyn E. Tuerena, Raja S. Ganeshram, Matthew P. Humphreys, Thomas J. Browning, Heather Bouman, and Alexander P. Piotrowski

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Final revised paper (published on 24 Sep 2019)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 02 May 2019)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'review of R.E. Tuerena et al.', Anonymous Referee #1, 14 May 2019
- AC1: 'Response to reviewer 1', Robyn Tuerena, 31 May 2019
  - RC3: 'R. Tuerena et al.', Anonymous Referee #1, 11 Jun 2019
    - AC3: 'Response to Anonymous Referee #1 (RC3)', Robyn Tuerena, 03 Jul 2019
RC2: 'Biogeosciences review Tuerena et al', Anonymous Referee #2, 28 May 2019
- AC2: 'Response to Anonymous Referee #2', Robyn Tuerena, 03 Jul 2019

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (05 Jul 2019) by Christoph Heinze

AR by Anna Wenzel on behalf of the Authors (16 Jul 2019) Author's response

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (22 Jul 2019) by Christoph Heinze

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (15 Aug 2019)

ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (23 Aug 2019) by Christoph Heinze

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Short summary

The carbon isotopes in algae can be used to predict food sources and environmental change. We explore how dissolved carbon is taken up by algae in the South Atlantic Ocean and how this affects their carbon isotope signature. We find that cell size controls isotope fractionation. We use our results to investigate how climate change may impact the carbon isotopes in algae. We suggest a shift to smaller algae in this region would decrease the carbon isotope ratio at the base of the food web.