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Aluminum-induced changes in the net carbon fixation and carbon decomposition of a nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium Trichodesmium erythraeum

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Abstract

Recent studies suggest aluminum (Al) likely plays a role in the ocean carbon cycle by altering the biological carbon fixation and carbon decomposition of marine diatoms. However, it remains speculative whether Al has similar effects on other ecologically important phytoplankton groups such as the globally important nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium, Trichodesmium. Here we report the influence of Al on carbon fixation and decomposition in non-axenic cultures of Trichodesmium erythraeum IMS101 (CCMP 1985). By using radiocarbon, and adding oceanic relevant amounts of dissolved Al (yielding concentrations of 40 and 200 nM) along with non-Al-amended controls, we investigated the changes in particulate organic carbon (POC) of Trichodesmium (> 2 μm, Trichodesmium POC), and free-living bacteria (0.2–2 μm, bacterial POC), and dissolved organic carbon (< 0.2 μm, DOC) over a 116-day growth period. The results showed that the rates of increase of POC in the declining growth phase of T. erythraeum were significantly higher (by 11–14%) in the Al-enriched treatments than in the control, and this Al-enhanced carbon fixation is consistent with previous observations on marine diatoms. On the other hand, unlike diatoms, the POC from T. erythraeum decomposed faster in the Al-enriched treatments during the first decay phase when bacterial POC and DOC increased along with the decomposition of Trichodesmium POC. Further addition of the same amounts of Al (again calculated to increase the Al concentration by 40 and 200 nM) was performed on day 71. This treatment was designed to mimic Al supply from sediment after the settling of Trichodesmium colonies to the ocean bottom. Following this second addition, the decomposition rate of both Trichodesmium POC and DOC slowed down by 20–27% and 31–62%, respectively, during the second decay phase, when DOC and bacterial POC decreased. The study suggests that Al fertilization in the surface ocean via dust deposition may increase the net carbon fixation and associated nitrogen fixation by Trichodesmium, and thus the supply of new nitrogen to the euphotic zone, whereas Al from sediment may decrease the decomposition rate of decaying Trichodesmium settled to the ocean bottom.

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Data availability

Data for this manuscript are available at the South China Sea Ocean Data Center, National Earth System Science Data Center, National Science & Technology Infrastructure of China (http://data.scsio.ac.cn/metaData-detail/1646764363844362240).

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Acknowledgements

We thank Kim Racine and Lise Rancourt at the Institut national de la Recherche scientifique for their technical assistance. We also thank the data archive support from the National Earth System Data Center, National Science & Technology Infrastructure of China (http://www.geodata.cn).

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41506150), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (2019A1515011645), the Development Fund of South China Sea Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (SCSIO202204), the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province, China (2020B1212060058). C. Fortin and P. G. C. Campbell were supported by the Canada Research Chairs Program. L. Zhou was supported by a Chinese Academy of Sciences Scholarship. F. Liu is supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 891418 and UK Natural Environment Research Council Grant NE/V01451X/1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-resources and Ecology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China

    Linbin Zhou, Yehui Tan & Liangmin Huang

  2. Institut national de la recherche scientifique, Centre Eau Terre Environnement, Quebec, Canada

    Linbin Zhou, Fengjie Liu, Claude Fortin & Peter G. C. Campbell

  3. School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 3GP, UK

    Fengjie Liu

  4. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Linbin Zhou, Yehui Tan & Liangmin Huang

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  1. Linbin Zhou
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by LZ and FL. The first draft of the manuscript was written by LZ and all authors commented on subsequent versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Linbin Zhou or Yehui Tan.

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Zhou, L., Liu, F., Tan, Y. et al. Aluminum-induced changes in the net carbon fixation and carbon decomposition of a nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium Trichodesmium erythraeum. Biogeochemistry 165, 277–290 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-023-01081-4

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