Response of the eastern mediterranean microbial ecosystem to dust and dust affected by acid processing in the atmosphere

Michael D. Krom; Zongbo Shi; Anthony Stockdale; Ilana Berman-Frank; Antonia Giannakourou; Barak Herut; Anna Lagaria; Nafsika Papageorgiou; Paraskevi Pitta; Stella Psarra; Eyal Rahav; Michael Scoullos; Eleni Stathopoulou; Anastasia Tsiola; Tatiana M. Tsagaraki

doi:10.3389/fmars.2016.00133

Response of the eastern mediterranean microbial ecosystem to dust and dust affected by acid processing in the atmosphere

Michael D. Krom, Zongbo Shi, Anthony Stockdale, Ilana Berman-Frank, Antonia Giannakourou, Barak Herut, Anna Lagaria, Nafsika Papageorgiou, Paraskevi Pitta, Stella Psarra, Eyal Rahav, Michael Scoullos, Eleni Stathopoulou, Anastasia Tsiola, Tatiana M. Tsagaraki

The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences

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

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

Acid processes in the atmosphere, particularly those caused by anthropogenic acid gases, increase the amount of bioavailable P in dust and hence are predicted to increase microbial biomass and primary productivity when supplied to oceanic surface waters. This is likely to be particularly important in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea (EMS), which is P limited during the winter bloom and N&P co-limited for phytoplankton in summer. However, it is not clear how the acid processes acting on Saharan dust will affect the microbial biomass and primary productivity in the EMS. Here, we carried out bioassay manipulations on EMS surface water on which Saharan dust was added as dust (Z), acid treated dust (ZA), dust plus excess N (ZN), and acid treated dust with excess N (ZNA) during springtime (May 2012) and measured bacterioplankton biomass, metabolic, and other relevant chemical and biological parameters. We show that acid treatment of Saharan dust increased the amount of bioavailable P supplied by a factor of ~40 compared to non-acidified dust (18.4 vs. 0.45 nmoles P mg^-1 dust, respectively). The increase in chlorophyll, primary, and bacterial productivity for treatments Z and ZA were controlled by the amount of N added with the dust while those for treatments ZN and ZNA (in which excessive N was added) were controlled by the amount of P added. These results confirm that the surface waters were N&P co-limited for phytoplankton during springtime. However, total chlorophyll and primary productivity in the acid treated dust additions (ZA and ZNA) were less than predicted from that calculated from the amount of the potentially limiting nutrient added. This biological inhibition was interpreted as being due to labile trace metals being added with the acidified dust. A probable cause for this biological inhibition was the addition of dissolved Al, which forms potentially toxic Al nanoparticles when added to seawater. Thus, the effect of anthropogenic acid processes in the atmosphere, while increasing the flux of bioavailable P from dust to the surface ocean, may also add toxic trace metals such as Al, which moderate the fertilizing effect of the added nutrients.

Original language	English
Article number	133
Journal	Frontiers in Marine Science
Volume	3
Issue number	AUG
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2016.00133
State	Published - 2016

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Krom, Shi, Stockdale, Berman-Frank, Giannakourou, Herut, Lagaria, Papageorgiou, Pitta, Psarra, Rahav, Scoullos, Stathopoulou, Tsiola and Tsagaraki.

Funding

This work was financed by the European Union Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 228224, "MESOAQUA: Network of leading MESOcosm facilities to advance the studies of future AQUAtic ecosystems from the Arctic to the Mediterranean" through grants to MK, ZS, IB, BH, and ER. The authors wish to thank G. Piperakis for his inspired technical assistance, A. Konstantinopoulou for assistance with bacterial production analyses, D. Podaras, and S. Diliberto for assistance during the experiment and N. Sekeris for his help with constructions and ideas on technical solutions. The captain and the crew of the R/V Philia are also thanked for their assistance during the transportation of water from the sea to the CRETACOSMOS facility. Funding was also provided by Leverhulme Trust entitled "Understanding the delivery of phosphorus nutrient to the oceans" Grant Number RPG 406. MDK would like to acknowledge the input from Yasmin Spain, Hannah deFrond and Emily Buckley who did their senior projects at Leeds University and whose input helped me clarify my thoughts on these experiments. Funding allowing the participation of ER, IB, and BH was also provided by the Israel Science Foundation grants (996/08) to IB, BH and ZS by NERC (NE/I021616/1).

Funders	Funder number
Seventh Framework Programme	228224
Natural Environment Research Council	NE/I021616/1
Leverhulme Trust	RPG 406
University of Leeds
Israel Science Foundation	996/08
Seventh Framework Programme

Keywords

Atmospheric acid processes
Dust
Eastern Mediterranean
Microcosm experiment
Nitrogen
Phosphorus
Trace metals aluminum

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10.3389/fmars.2016.00133

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Krom, M. D., Shi, Z., Stockdale, A., Berman-Frank, I., Giannakourou, A., Herut, B., Lagaria, A., Papageorgiou, N., Pitta, P., Psarra, S., Rahav, E., Scoullos, M., Stathopoulou, E., Tsiola, A., & Tsagaraki, T. M. (2016). Response of the eastern mediterranean microbial ecosystem to dust and dust affected by acid processing in the atmosphere. Frontiers in Marine Science, 3(AUG), Article 133. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2016.00133

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abstract = "Acid processes in the atmosphere, particularly those caused by anthropogenic acid gases, increase the amount of bioavailable P in dust and hence are predicted to increase microbial biomass and primary productivity when supplied to oceanic surface waters. This is likely to be particularly important in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea (EMS), which is P limited during the winter bloom and N&P co-limited for phytoplankton in summer. However, it is not clear how the acid processes acting on Saharan dust will affect the microbial biomass and primary productivity in the EMS. Here, we carried out bioassay manipulations on EMS surface water on which Saharan dust was added as dust (Z), acid treated dust (ZA), dust plus excess N (ZN), and acid treated dust with excess N (ZNA) during springtime (May 2012) and measured bacterioplankton biomass, metabolic, and other relevant chemical and biological parameters. We show that acid treatment of Saharan dust increased the amount of bioavailable P supplied by a factor of ~40 compared to non-acidified dust (18.4 vs. 0.45 nmoles P mg-1 dust, respectively). The increase in chlorophyll, primary, and bacterial productivity for treatments Z and ZA were controlled by the amount of N added with the dust while those for treatments ZN and ZNA (in which excessive N was added) were controlled by the amount of P added. These results confirm that the surface waters were N&P co-limited for phytoplankton during springtime. However, total chlorophyll and primary productivity in the acid treated dust additions (ZA and ZNA) were less than predicted from that calculated from the amount of the potentially limiting nutrient added. This biological inhibition was interpreted as being due to labile trace metals being added with the acidified dust. A probable cause for this biological inhibition was the addition of dissolved Al, which forms potentially toxic Al nanoparticles when added to seawater. Thus, the effect of anthropogenic acid processes in the atmosphere, while increasing the flux of bioavailable P from dust to the surface ocean, may also add toxic trace metals such as Al, which moderate the fertilizing effect of the added nutrients.",

keywords = "Atmospheric acid processes, Dust, Eastern Mediterranean, Microcosm experiment, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Trace metals aluminum",

author = "Krom, {Michael D.} and Zongbo Shi and Anthony Stockdale and Ilana Berman-Frank and Antonia Giannakourou and Barak Herut and Anna Lagaria and Nafsika Papageorgiou and Paraskevi Pitta and Stella Psarra and Eyal Rahav and Michael Scoullos and Eleni Stathopoulou and Anastasia Tsiola and Tsagaraki, {Tatiana M.}",

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Krom, MD, Shi, Z, Stockdale, A, Berman-Frank, I, Giannakourou, A, Herut, B, Lagaria, A, Papageorgiou, N, Pitta, P, Psarra, S, Rahav, E, Scoullos, M, Stathopoulou, E, Tsiola, A & Tsagaraki, TM 2016, 'Response of the eastern mediterranean microbial ecosystem to dust and dust affected by acid processing in the atmosphere', Frontiers in Marine Science, vol. 3, no. AUG, 133. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2016.00133

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AU - Krom, Michael D.

AU - Shi, Zongbo

AU - Stockdale, Anthony

AU - Berman-Frank, Ilana

AU - Giannakourou, Antonia

AU - Herut, Barak

AU - Lagaria, Anna

AU - Papageorgiou, Nafsika

AU - Pitta, Paraskevi

AU - Psarra, Stella

AU - Rahav, Eyal

AU - Scoullos, Michael

AU - Stathopoulou, Eleni

AU - Tsiola, Anastasia

AU - Tsagaraki, Tatiana M.

PY - 2016

Y1 - 2016

N2 - Acid processes in the atmosphere, particularly those caused by anthropogenic acid gases, increase the amount of bioavailable P in dust and hence are predicted to increase microbial biomass and primary productivity when supplied to oceanic surface waters. This is likely to be particularly important in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea (EMS), which is P limited during the winter bloom and N&P co-limited for phytoplankton in summer. However, it is not clear how the acid processes acting on Saharan dust will affect the microbial biomass and primary productivity in the EMS. Here, we carried out bioassay manipulations on EMS surface water on which Saharan dust was added as dust (Z), acid treated dust (ZA), dust plus excess N (ZN), and acid treated dust with excess N (ZNA) during springtime (May 2012) and measured bacterioplankton biomass, metabolic, and other relevant chemical and biological parameters. We show that acid treatment of Saharan dust increased the amount of bioavailable P supplied by a factor of ~40 compared to non-acidified dust (18.4 vs. 0.45 nmoles P mg-1 dust, respectively). The increase in chlorophyll, primary, and bacterial productivity for treatments Z and ZA were controlled by the amount of N added with the dust while those for treatments ZN and ZNA (in which excessive N was added) were controlled by the amount of P added. These results confirm that the surface waters were N&P co-limited for phytoplankton during springtime. However, total chlorophyll and primary productivity in the acid treated dust additions (ZA and ZNA) were less than predicted from that calculated from the amount of the potentially limiting nutrient added. This biological inhibition was interpreted as being due to labile trace metals being added with the acidified dust. A probable cause for this biological inhibition was the addition of dissolved Al, which forms potentially toxic Al nanoparticles when added to seawater. Thus, the effect of anthropogenic acid processes in the atmosphere, while increasing the flux of bioavailable P from dust to the surface ocean, may also add toxic trace metals such as Al, which moderate the fertilizing effect of the added nutrients.

AB - Acid processes in the atmosphere, particularly those caused by anthropogenic acid gases, increase the amount of bioavailable P in dust and hence are predicted to increase microbial biomass and primary productivity when supplied to oceanic surface waters. This is likely to be particularly important in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea (EMS), which is P limited during the winter bloom and N&P co-limited for phytoplankton in summer. However, it is not clear how the acid processes acting on Saharan dust will affect the microbial biomass and primary productivity in the EMS. Here, we carried out bioassay manipulations on EMS surface water on which Saharan dust was added as dust (Z), acid treated dust (ZA), dust plus excess N (ZN), and acid treated dust with excess N (ZNA) during springtime (May 2012) and measured bacterioplankton biomass, metabolic, and other relevant chemical and biological parameters. We show that acid treatment of Saharan dust increased the amount of bioavailable P supplied by a factor of ~40 compared to non-acidified dust (18.4 vs. 0.45 nmoles P mg-1 dust, respectively). The increase in chlorophyll, primary, and bacterial productivity for treatments Z and ZA were controlled by the amount of N added with the dust while those for treatments ZN and ZNA (in which excessive N was added) were controlled by the amount of P added. These results confirm that the surface waters were N&P co-limited for phytoplankton during springtime. However, total chlorophyll and primary productivity in the acid treated dust additions (ZA and ZNA) were less than predicted from that calculated from the amount of the potentially limiting nutrient added. This biological inhibition was interpreted as being due to labile trace metals being added with the acidified dust. A probable cause for this biological inhibition was the addition of dissolved Al, which forms potentially toxic Al nanoparticles when added to seawater. Thus, the effect of anthropogenic acid processes in the atmosphere, while increasing the flux of bioavailable P from dust to the surface ocean, may also add toxic trace metals such as Al, which moderate the fertilizing effect of the added nutrients.

KW - Atmospheric acid processes

KW - Dust

KW - Eastern Mediterranean

KW - Microcosm experiment

KW - Nitrogen

KW - Phosphorus

KW - Trace metals aluminum

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Response of the eastern mediterranean microbial ecosystem to dust and dust affected by acid processing in the atmosphere

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Bibliographical note

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Keywords

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