Project: Dimensions: Collaborative Research: Genetic, functional and phylogenetic diversity determines marine phytoplankton community responses to changing temperature and nutrients

Acronym/Short Name:Phytoplankton Community Responses
Project Duration:2016-10 - 2020-09
Geolocation:Narragansett Bay, RI and Bermuda, Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS)

Description

NSF Award Abstract:
Photosynthetic marine microbes, phytoplankton, contribute half of global primary production, form the base of most aquatic food webs and are major players in global biogeochemical cycles. Understanding their community composition is important because it affects higher trophic levels, the cycling of energy and elements and is sensitive to global environmental change. This project will investigate how phytoplankton communities respond to two major global change stressors in aquatic systems: warming and changes in nutrient availability. The researchers will work in two marine systems with a long history of environmental monitoring, the temperate Narragansett Bay estuary in Rhode Island and a subtropical North Atlantic site near Bermuda. They will use field sampling and laboratory experiments with multiple species and varieties of phytoplankton to assess the diversity in their responses to different temperatures under high and low nutrient concentrations. If the diversity of responses is high within species, then that species may have a better chance to adapt to rising temperatures and persist in the future. Some species may already be able to grow at high temperatures; consequently, they may become more abundant as the ocean warms. The researchers will incorporate this response information in mathematical models to predict how phytoplankton assemblages would reorganize under future climate scenarios. Graduate students and postdoctoral associates will be trained in diverse scientific approaches and techniques such as shipboard sampling, laboratory experiments, genomic analyses and mathematical modeling. The results of the project will be incorporated into K-12 teaching, including an advanced placement environmental science class for underrepresented minorities in Los Angeles, data exercises for rural schools in Michigan and disseminated to the public through an environmental journalism institute based in Rhode Island.

Predicting how ecological communities will respond to a changing environment requires knowledge of genetic, phylogenetic and functional diversity within and across species. This project will investigate how the interaction of phylogenetic, genetic and functional diversity in thermal traits within and across a broad range of species determines the responses of marine phytoplankton communities to rising temperature and changing nutrient regimes. High genetic and functional diversity within a species may allow evolutionary adaptation of that species to warming. If the phylogenetic and functional diversity is higher across species, species sorting and ecological community reorganization is likely. Different marine sites may have a different balance of genetic and functional diversity within and across species and, thus, different contribution of evolutionary and ecological responses to changing climate. The research will be conducted at two long-term time series sites in the Atlantic Ocean, the Narragansett Bay Long-Term Plankton Time Series and the Bermuda Atlantic Time Series (BATS) station. The goal is to assess intra- and inter-specific genetic and functional diversity in thermal responses at contrasting nutrient concentrations for a representative range of species in communities at the two sites in different seasons, and use this information to parameterize eco-evolutionary models embedded into biogeochemical ocean models to predict responses of phytoplankton communities to projected rising temperatures under realistic nutrient conditions. Model predictions will be informed by and tested with field data, including the long-term data series available for both sites and in community temperature manipulation experiments. This project will provide novel information on existing intraspecific genetic and functional thermal diversity for many ecologically and biogeochemically important phytoplankton species, estimate generation of new genetic and functional diversity in evolution experiments, and develop and parameterize novel eco-evolutionary models interfaced with ocean biogeochemical models to predict future phytoplankton community structure. The project will also characterize the interaction of two major global change stressors, warming and changing nutrient concentrations, as they affect phytoplankton diversity at functional, genetic, and phylogenetic levels. In addition, the project will develop novel modeling methodology that will be broadly applicable to understanding how other types of complex ecological communities may adapt to a rapidly warming world.


DatasetLatest Version DateCurrent State
Diatom amplicon sequencing variants (ASVs) from Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, USA from 2008-20142023-11-09Final no updates expected
Temperature and nutrient dependent phytoplankton growth and herbivorous protist grazing rates from the Long-term Plankton Time Series site in Narragansett Bay, RI in 20172023-04-12Final no updates expected
Herbivorous protist abundances under simultaneous manipulation of temperature and nutrients from the Long-term Plankton Time Series site in Narragansett Bay, RI in 20172023-04-10Final no updates expected
Data from common garden experiment containing three populations of T. rotula 2021-09-13Final no updates expected
Changes in seasonal phytoplankton community composition as a response to temperature at the San Pedro Ocean Time-series.2021-06-01Preliminary and in progress
Elemental composition of phytoplankton communities from multivariate mesocosm experiments conducted with a natural phytoplankton community from Narragansett Bay, RI.2021-04-26Final no updates expected
Microscopy cell counts from multivariate mesocosm experiments conducted with a natural phytoplankton community from Narragansett Bay, RI2021-04-14Final no updates expected
Size-fractionated chlorophyll a from multivariate mesocosm experiments conducted with a natural phytoplankton community from Narragansett Bay, RI2021-04-14Final no updates expected
Estimated thermal capacities for phytoplankton strains2021-02-04Final no updates expected
Estimated thermal traits for phytoplankton2021-02-04Final no updates expected
Literature compilation of thermal growth rates from four phytoplankton functional types 2021-02-04Final no updates expected
Growth rates across multiple temperatures and light intensities for seven strains of a marine Chaetoceros sp. isolated from Narragansett Bay March 2018. Growth was measured across six to seven temperatures and three light intensities for each strain2019-11-20Final no updates expected
The thermal niche for each of 11 new isolates of marine Synechococcus from Narragansett Bay, July 20172019-11-20Final no updates expected
Thermal niche across three light levels for seven strains of a marine diatom Chaetoceros sp. isolated from Narragansett Bay March 20182019-11-20Final no updates expected
Growth rates across temperatures for 11 new isolates of marine Synechococcus from Narragansett Bay, July 20172019-11-20Final no updates expected
Fluorescence spectra for 3 strains of Synechococcus while increasing temperatures to detect the photosystem components disassociation temperature2019-11-20Final no updates expected
NCBI accessions for raw genomic sequence data of 11 new isolates of marine Synechococcus from Naragansett Bay, July 20172019-11-20Final no updates expected
Elemental carbon and nitrogen data for Skeletonema species as analyzed in Anderson and Rynearson, 20202019-10-30Final no updates expected
Fatty acid profiles per cell of replicate populations of Thalassiosira pseudonana, selected at 16 and 31C for ~500 generations and assayed at 4 temperatures2019-10-28Final no updates expected
Per-capita growth rates for T. pseudonana selected at low and high temperatures for ~350 generations and assayed at 10 temperatures2019-10-28Final no updates expected
Fatty acid profiles by biovolume of replicate populations of Thalassiosira pseudonana, selected at 16 and 31C for ~500 generations and assayed at 4 temperatures2019-10-28Final no updates expected
Daily growth rates of 8 populations of Chaetoceros simplex grown at 31C with control population at 25C, in regular L1 medium (884 µm NO3-)2019-10-07Final no updates expected
C:N ratios of two heat‐tolerant populations of Chaetoceros simplex and control and ancestral populations, at different temperatures2019-10-07Final no updates expected
Daily growth rates for Thermal Performance Curve (TPC) of Chaetoceros simplex after about 100 generations of evolution at seven temperatures, 12-34 degrees C.2019-10-07Data not available
Daily growth rates for Thermal Performance Curve (TPC) of Chaetoceros simplex in nitrogen-replete evolved populations after about 200 generations of evolution at eight temperatures, 10-35 degrees C.2019-10-07Final no updates expected
Thermal growth for Skeletonema species as analyzed in Anderson and Rynearson, 20202019-08-12Final no updates expected

People

Principal Investigator: David A. Hutchins
University of Southern California (USC-WIES)

Principal Investigator: Elena Litchman
Michigan State University (MSU)

Principal Investigator: Tatiana A. Rynearson
University of Rhode Island (URI-GSO)

Co-Principal Investigator: Christopher Klausmeier
Michigan State University (MSU)

Contact: Elena Litchman
Michigan State University (MSU)


Programs

Dimensions of Biodiversity [Dimensions of Biodiversity]


Data Management Plan

DMP_Litchman_Rynearson_Hutchins_OCE-1638958_OCE-1638804_OCE-1638834.pdf (207.93 KB)
08/14/2017