Ocean warming alleviates iron limitation of marine nitrogen fixation

Hai-Bo Jiang, Fei-Xue Fu, Sara Rivero-Calle, Naomi M. Levine, Sergio A. Sañudo-Wilhelmy, Ping-Ping Qu, Xin-Wei Wang, Paulina Pinedo-Gonzalez, Zhu Zhu and David A. Hutchins ()
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Hai-Bo Jiang: Central China Normal University
Fei-Xue Fu: University of Southern California
Sara Rivero-Calle: University of Southern California
Naomi M. Levine: University of Southern California
Sergio A. Sañudo-Wilhelmy: University of Southern California
Ping-Ping Qu: University of Southern California
Xin-Wei Wang: Xiamen University
Paulina Pinedo-Gonzalez: University of Southern California
Zhu Zhu: Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Minhang District
David A. Hutchins: University of Southern California

Nature Climate Change, 2018, vol. 8, issue 8, 709-712

Abstract: Abstract The cyanobacterium Trichodesmium fixes as much as half of the nitrogen (N2) that supports tropical open-ocean biomes, but its growth is frequently limited by iron (Fe) availability1,2. How future ocean warming may interact with this globally widespread Fe limitation of Trichodesmium N2 fixation is unclear3. Here, we show that the optimum growth temperature of Fe-limited Trichodesmium is ~5 °C higher than for Fe-replete cells, which results in large increases in growth and N2 fixation under the projected warmer Fe-deplete sea surface conditions. Concurrently, the cellular Fe content decreases as temperature rises. Together, these two trends result in thermally driven increases of ~470% in Fe-limited cellular iron use efficiencies (IUEs), defined as the molar quantity of N2 fixed by Trichodesmium per unit time per mole of cellular Fe (mol N2 fixed h–1 mol Fe–1), which enables Trichodesmium to much more efficiently leverage the scarce available Fe supplies to support N2 fixation. Modelling these results in the context of the IPCC representative concentration pathway (RCP) 8.5 global warming scenario4 predicts that IUEs of N2 fixers could increase by ~76% by 2100, and largely alleviate the prevailing Fe limitation across broad expanses of the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans. Thermally enhanced cyanobacterial IUEs could increase future global marine N2 fixation by ~22% over the next century, and thus profoundly alter the biology and biogeochemistry of open-ocean ecosystems.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41558-018-0216-8

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