Nitrogen enrichment offsets direct negative effects of ocean acidification on a reef-building crustose coralline alga

Biology Letters
Maggie Dorothy Johnson, R C Carpenter

Abstract

Ocean acidification (OA) and nutrient enrichment threaten the persistence of near shore ecosystems, yet little is known about their combined effects on marine organisms. Here, we show that a threefold increase in nitrogen concentrations, simulating enrichment due to coastal eutrophication or consumer excretions, offset the direct negative effects of near-future OA on calcification and photophysiology of the reef-building crustose coralline alga, Porolithon onkodes Projected near-future pCO2 levels (approx. 850 µatm) decreased calcification by 30% relative to ambient conditions. Conversely, nitrogen enrichment (nitrate + nitrite and ammonium) increased calcification by 90-130% in ambient and high pCO2 treatments, respectively. pCO2 and nitrogen enrichment interactively affected instantaneous photophysiology, with highest relative electron transport rates under high pCO2 and high nitrogen. Nitrogen enrichment alone increased concentrations of the photosynthetic pigments chlorophyll a, phycocyanin and phycoerythrin by approximately 80-450%, regardless of pCO2 These results demonstrate that nutrient enrichment can mediate direct organismal responses to OA. In natural systems, however, such direct benefits may be counteracted by sim...Continue Reading

References

Nov 20, 2002·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences
Jun 3, 1983·Science·J L MeyerG S Helfman
Feb 8, 2014·PloS One·Maggie D JohnsonRobert C Carpenter
Jun 12, 2014·PeerJ·Maggie Dorothy JohnsonJennifer E Smith

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