Modulation of cadmium uptake in phytoplankton by seawater CO2 concentration

Jay T. Cullen, Todd W. Lane, François M. M. Morel and Robert M. Sherrell
Additional contact information
Jay T. Cullen: Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University
Todd W. Lane: Guyot Hall, Princeton University
François M. M. Morel: Guyot Hall, Princeton University
Robert M. Sherrell: Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University

Nature, 1999, vol. 402, issue 6758, 165-167

Abstract: Abstract The vertical distribution of cadmium in the ocean is characteristic of an algal nutrient1,2, although an underlying physiological basis remains undiscovered. The strong correlation between dissolved cadmium and phosphorus concentrations in sea water has nevertheless been exploited for reconstructing past nutrient distributions in the ocean3,4,5. In culture experiments, the addition of cadmium accelerates the growth of some marine phytoplankton6,7,8,9 and increases the activity of carbonic anhydrase, normally a zinc-based metalloenzyme that is involved in inorganic carbon acquisition7,9. Here we show that the concentration of a Cd-carbonic-anhydrase—distinct from Zn-carbonic-anhydrases—in a marine diatom is regulated by the CO2 partial pressure ( p CO 2 ) as well as by the zinc concentration. Field studies in intensely productive coastal waters off central California demonstrate that cadmium content in natural phytoplankton populations similarly increases as surface-water p CO 2 decreases. Incubation experiments confirm that cadmium uptake by natural phytoplankton is inversely related to seawater p CO 2 and zinc concentration. We thus propose that biological removal of cadmium from ocean surface waters is related to its utilization in carbonic anhydrase, and is regulated by dissolved CO2 and zinc concentrations. The dissolved seawater Cd/P ratio would therefore vary with atmospheric p CO 2 , complicating the use of cadmium as a tracer of past nutrient concentrations in the upper ocean.

Date: 1999
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/46007 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:nature:v:402:y:1999:i:6758:d:10.1038_46007

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

DOI: 10.1038/46007

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

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