Daily changes in phytoplankton lipidomes reveal mechanisms of energy storage in the open ocean

Kevin W. Becker, James R. Collins, Bryndan P. Durham, Ryan D. Groussman, Angelicque E. White, Helen F. Fredricks, Justin E. Ossolinski, Daniel J. Repeta, Paul Carini, E. Virginia Armbrust and Benjamin A. S. Van Mooy ()
Additional contact information
Kevin W. Becker: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
James R. Collins: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Bryndan P. Durham: University of Washington
Ryan D. Groussman: University of Washington
Angelicque E. White: Oregon State University
Helen F. Fredricks: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Justin E. Ossolinski: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Daniel J. Repeta: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Paul Carini: Oregon State University
E. Virginia Armbrust: University of Washington
Benjamin A. S. Van Mooy: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Sunlight is the dominant control on phytoplankton biosynthetic activity, and darkness deprives them of their primary external energy source. Changes in the biochemical composition of phytoplankton communities over diel light cycles and attendant consequences for carbon and energy flux in environments remain poorly elucidated. Here we use lipidomic data from the North Pacific subtropical gyre to show that biosynthesis of energy-rich triacylglycerols (TAGs) by eukaryotic nanophytoplankton during the day and their subsequent consumption at night drives a large and previously uncharacterized daily carbon cycle. Diel oscillations in TAG concentration comprise 23 ± 11% of primary production by eukaryotic nanophytoplankton representing a global flux of about 2.4 Pg C yr−1. Metatranscriptomic analyses of genes required for TAG biosynthesis indicate that haptophytes and dinoflagellates are active members in TAG production. Estimates suggest that these organisms could contain as much as 40% more calories at sunset than at sunrise due to TAG production.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-07346-z Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-07346-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-07346-z

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().