Experimental evolution of phytoplankton fatty acid thermal reaction norms.

ABSTRACT: Temperature effects on the fatty acid (FA) profiles of phytoplankton, major primary producers in the ocean, have been widely studied due to their importance as industrial feedstocks and to their indispensable role as global producers of long-chain, polyunsaturated FA (PUFA), including omega-3 (ω3) FA required by organisms at higher trophic levels. The latter is of global ecological concern for marine food webs, as some evidence suggests an ongoing decline in global marine-derived ω3 FA due to both a global decline in phytoplankton abundance and to a physiological reduction in ω3 production by phytoplankton as temperatures rise. Here, we examined both short-term (physiological) and long-term (evolutionary) responses of FA profiles to temperature by comparing FA thermal reaction norms of the

SUBMITTER: O'Donnell DR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6866708 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature