Effect of temperature, nutrients and growth rate on picophytoplankton cell size across the Atlantic Ocean.

ABSTRACT: The cell size of picophytoplankton populations affects their ecology and biogeochemical role, but how different environmental drivers control its variability is still not well understood. To gain insight into the role of temperature and nutrient availability as determinants of picophytoplankton population mean cell size, we carried out five microcosm experiments across the Atlantic Ocean (45°N-27°S) in which surface plankton assemblages were incubated under all combinations of three temperatures (in situ, 3 °C cooling and 3 °C warming) and two nutrient levels (unamended and addition of nitrogen and phosphorus). The overall range of variability in cell volume was 5-fold for Prochlorococcus, 8-fold for Synechococcus and 6-fold for the picoeukaryotes. We observed, in all the treatments and in

SUBMITTER: Maranon E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11564571 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature