Impact of ocean acidification on the structure of future phytoplankton communities

Stephanie Dutkiewicz; J. Jeffrey Morris; Michael J. Follows; Jeffery Scott; Orly Levitan; Sonya T. Dyhrman; Ilana Berman-Frank

doi:10.1038/nclimate2722

Impact of ocean acidification on the structure of future phytoplankton communities

Stephanie Dutkiewicz, J. Jeffrey Morris, Michael J. Follows, Jeffery Scott, Orly Levitan, Sonya T. Dyhrman, Ilana Berman-Frank

The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

207 Scopus citations

Abstract

Phytoplankton form the foundation of the marine food web and regulate key biogeochemical processes. These organisms face multiple environmental changes, including the decline in ocean pH (ocean acidification) caused by rising atmospheric p CO 2 (ref.). A meta-analysis of published experimental data assessing growth rates of different phytoplankton taxa under both ambient and elevated p CO 2 conditions revealed a significant range of responses. This effect of ocean acidification was incorporated into a global marine ecosystem model to explore how marine phytoplankton communities might be impacted over the course of a hypothetical twenty-first century. Results emphasized that the differing responses to elevated p CO 2 caused sufficient changes in competitive fitness between phytoplankton types to significantly alter community structure. At the level of ecological function of the phytoplankton community, acidification had a greater impact than warming or reduced nutrient supply. The model suggested that longer timescales of competition- and transport-mediated adjustments are essential for predicting changes to phytoplankton community structure.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1002-1006
Number of pages	5
Journal	Nature Climate Change
Volume	5
Issue number	11
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2722
State	Published - 1 Nov 2015

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited.

Funding

We acknowledge funding from NSF grant OCE-1315201 (J.J.M., S.D., M.J.F., S.T.D.), DOE grant DE-FG02-94ER61937 (S.D., J.S.), the Gordon and Betty Moore foundation (S.D., M.J.F.), NSF grant OCE 13-14336 (S.T.D.), German–Israel Joint Research BMBF-MOST grant GR1950 (I.B.-F.), the BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action NSF grant DBI-0939454 (J.J.M.) and a NASA Astrobiology Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship (J.J.M.).

Funders	Funder number
BEACON	DBI-0939454
German–Israel Joint Research BMBF-MOST	GR1950
National Science Foundation	OCE-1315201, 1315201
U.S. Department of Energy	DE-FG02-94ER61937
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation	OCE 13-14336
NASA Astrobiology Institute

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1038/nclimate2722

Cite this

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AU - Levitan, Orly

AU - Dyhrman, Sonya T.

AU - Berman-Frank, Ilana

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Impact of ocean acidification on the structure of future phytoplankton communities

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

UN SDGs

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