Elevated pCO2 Impedes Succession of Phytoplankton Community From Diatoms to Dinoflagellates Along With Increased Abundance of Viruses and Bacteria

Abstract

Eutrophic coastal regions are highly productive and greatly influenced by human activities. Primary production supporting the coastal ecosystems is supposed to be affected by progressive ocean acidification driven by increasing CO 2 emissions. In order to investigate the effects of high p CO 2 (HC) on eutrophic plankton community structure and ecological functions, we employed 9 mesocosms and carried out an experiment under ambient (∼410 ppmv) and future high (1000 ppmv) atmospheric p CO 2 conditions, using in situ plankton community in Wuyuan Bay, East China Sea. Our results showed that HC along with natural seawater temperature rise significantly boosted biomass of diatoms with decreased abundance of dinoflagellates in the late stage of the experiment, demonstrating that HC repressed the succession from diatoms to dinoflagellates, a phenomenon observed during algal blooms in the East China Sea. HC did not significantly influence the primary production or biogenic silica contents of the phytoplankton assemblages. However, the HC treatments increased the abundance of viruses and heterotrophic bacteria, reflecting a refueling of nutrients for phytoplankton growth from virus-mediated cell lysis and bacterial degradation of organic matters. Conclusively, our results suggest that increasing CO 2 concentrations can modulate plankton structure including the succession of phytoplankton community and the abundance of viruses and bacteria in eutrophic coastal waters, which may lead to altered biogeochemical cycles of carbon and nutrients.