Description: In some parts of the Southern Ocean (SO), even though low surface concentrations of iron (Fe) and manganese (Mn) indicate FeMn co-limitation, we still lack an understanding on how Mn and Fe availability influences SO phytoplankton ecophysiology. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of Fe and Mn limitation alone as well as their combination on growth, photophysiology and particulate organic carbon production of the bloom-forming Antarctic diatom Chaetoceros debilis. Our results clearly show that growth, photochemical efficiency and carbon production of C. debilis were co-limited by Fe and Mn as highest values were only reached when both nutrients were provided. Even though Mn-deficient cells had higher photochemical efficiencies than Fe-limited ones, they, however, displayed similar low growth and POC production rates, indicating that Mn limitation alone drastically impeded the cell's performance. These results demonstrate that similar to low Fe concentrations, low Mn availability inhibits growth and carbon production of C. debilis. As a result from different species-specific trace metal requirements, SO phytoplankton species distribution and productivity may therefore not solely depend on the input of Fe alone, but also critically on Mn acting together as important drivers of SO phytoplankton ecology and biogeochemistry.

Description: Ecophysiological studies on Antarctic cryptophytes to assess whether climatic changes such as ocean acidification and enhanced stratification affect their growth in Antarctic coastal waters in the future are lacking so far. This is the first study that investigates the combined effects of the increasing availability of pCO2 (400 and 1000 μatm) and irradiance (20, 200 and 500 μmol photons m-2 s-1) on growth, elemental composition and photo-physiology of the Antarctic cryptophyte Geminigera cryophila. Under ambient pCO2, this species was characterized by a pronounced sensitivity to increasing irradiance with complete growth inhibition at the highest light intensity. Interestingly, when grown under high pCO2 this negative light effect vanished, and it reached the highest rates of growth and particulate organic carbon production at the highest irradiance compared to the other tested experimental conditions. Our results for G. cryophila reveal beneficial effects of ocean acidification in conjunction with enhanced irradiance on growth and photosynthesis. Hence, cryptophytes such as G. cryophila may be potential winners of climate change, potentially thriving better in more stratified and acidic coastal waters and contributing in higher abundance to future phytoplankton assemblages of coastal Antarctic waters.

Description: The dataset shows the orginal data based on which grazing rates of micro- and nanozooplankton and the growth rates of their prey, in austral autumn (April) close to the Antarctic Peninsula in the SO, were calculated in Böckmann et al. (2024). The data was measured by dilution experiments. Besides the, in such experiments classically investigated chlorophyll a, particulate organic carbon, particulate organic nitrogen, abundances of picoplankton and nanoplankton as well as bacterial abundances were measured at three stations in the Bransfield Strait, Drake Passage and Scotia Sea. Samples were taken during PS112 from a depth of 25 meters, using a polyethylene line connected to an ALMATEC membrane pump, by careful (laminar flow, 3-6 liters per minute, bubble free bottle filling) and trace metal clean techniques, successfully used since 2014. The data was collected to investigate the importance that nano- and microzooplankton grazers have for the carbon cycle in the Southern Ocean.

Description: The Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP), one of the most productive regions of the Southern Ocean, is currently undergoing rapid environmental changes such as ocean acidification (OA) and increased daily irradiances from enhanced surface‐water stratification. To assess the potential for future biological CO2 sequestration of this region, we incubated a natural phytoplankton assemblage from Ryder Bay, WAP, under a range of pCO2 levels (180 μatm, 450 μatm, and 1000 μatm) combined with either moderate or high natural solar radiation (MSR: 124 μmol photons/m**2/s and HSR: 435 μmol photons/ m**2/s, respectively). The initial and final phytoplankton communities were numerically dominated by the prymnesiophyte Phaeocystis antarctica, with the single cells initially being predominant and solitary and colonial cells reaching similar high abundances by the end. Only when communities were grown under ambient pCO2 in conjunction with HSR did the small diatom Fragilariopsis pseudonana outcompete P. antarctica at the end of the experiment. Such positive light‐dependent growth response of the diatom was, however, dampened by OA. These changes in community composition were caused by an enhanced photosensitivity of diatoms, especially F. pseudonana, under OA and HSR, reducing thereby their competitiveness toward P. antarctica. Moreover, community primary production (PP) of all treatments yielded similar high rates at the start and the end of the experiment, but with the main contributors shifting from initially large to small cells toward the end. Even though community PP of Ryder Bay phytoplankton was insensitive to the changes in light and CO2 availability, the observed size‐dependent shift in productivity could, however, weaken the biological CO2 sequestration potential of this region in the future.

Description: Dataset 1 shows the dissolved iron (dFe) values of an iron release experiment performed in the Southern Ocean at the tip of the Western Antarctic Peninsula. Krill and salp fecal pellets (FP) were incubated in filtered seawater (FSW) and seawater with phytoplankton (SWP). After 48 hours of incubation the dFe concentrations were measured. Numbers marked in red have been recognized as outliers (due to contamination or analytic error) and have been excluded from statistical analysis. Dataset 2 shows the uptake of iron into Southern Ocean phytoplankton cells from the pre-incubated water. The uptake was measured using the radiotracer 55Fe into two size classes of plankton (0.2-2µm and 〉2µm). Total dFe uptake is the sum of the two size classes. Lines marked in orange have been excluded from statistical analysis because respective dissolved iron concentrations were not reliable. The data for both datasets was collected between 04/11/2018 and 04/14/2018 (campaign PS112) at the Western Antarctic Peninsula (60° 44.455 S 54° 30.477 W) from a depth of 25 m. The data was collected in order to compare the bioavailability of iron from salp and krill FP to a Southern Ocean plankton community. All sampling steps were performed in trace metal clean ways.

Description: This table shows the dissolved iron concentrations of the initial water prior to the experiment (Initial) and after the incubation with salp and krill fecal pellets in filtered seawater (FSW) and seawater containing phytoplankton (SWP) as well as respective controls. Numbers marked in red have been recognized as outliers (due to contamination or analytic error) and have been excluded from statistical analysis.

Description: We present results from a field study of inorganic carbon (C) acquisition by Ross Sea phytoplankton during Phaeocystis-dominated early season blooms. Isotope disequilibrium experiments revealed that HCO3- was the primary inorganic C source for photosynthesis in all phytoplankton assemblages. From these experiments, we also derived relative enhancement factors for HCO3-/CO2 interconversion as a measure of extracellular carbonic anhydrase activity (eCA). The enhancement factors ranged from 1.0 (no apparent eCA activity) to 6.4, with an overall mean of 2.9. Additional eCA measurements, made using membrane inlet mass spectrometry (MIMS), yielded activities ranging from 2.4 to 6.9 U/[mg chl a] (mean 4.1). Measurements of short-term C-fixation parameters revealed saturation kinetics with respect to external inorganic carbon, with a mean half-saturation constant for inorganic carbon uptake (K1/2) of ~380 mM. Comparison of our early springtime results with published data from late-season Ross Sea assemblages showed that neither HCO3- utilization nor eCA activity was significantly correlated to ambient CO2 levels or phytoplankton taxonomic composition. We did, however, observe a strong negative relationship between surface water pCO2 and short-term 14C-fixation rates for the early season survey. Direct incubation experiments showed no statistically significant effects of pCO2 (10 to 80 Pa) on relative HCO3- utilization or eCA activity. Our results provide insight into the seasonal regulation of C uptake by Ross Sea phytoplankton across a range of pCO2 and phytoplankton taxonomic composition.

Description: Water samples were either acidified to pH 2 or processed without acidification (pH 8) prior solid-phase extraction (SPE). SPE was performed in quadruplicates. Thus, the given concentrations and elemental ratios of solid-phase extracts are average values of quadruplicate measurements (+/- standard deviation). Some values for SPE-V and SPE-As were below limit of detection (LOD).

Description: The present study examines how different pCO2 acclimations affect the CO2- and light-dependence of photophysiological processes and O2 fluxes in four Southern Ocean (SO) key phytoplankton species. We grew Chaetoceros debilis (Cleve), Pseudo-nitzschia subcurvata (Hasle), Fragilariopsis kerguelensis (O'Meara) and Phaeocystis antarctica (Karsten) under low (160 µatm) and high (1000 ?atm) pCO2. The CO2- and light-dependence of fluorescence parameters of photosystem II (PSII) were determined by means of a fluorescence induction relaxation system (FIRe). In all tested species, nonphotochemical quenching (NPQ) is the primary photoprotection strategy in response to short-term exposure to high light or low CO2 concentrations. In C. debilis and P. subcurvata, PSII connectivity (p) and functional absorption cross-sections of PSII in ambient light (sigma PSII') also contributed to photoprotection while changes in re-oxidation times of Qa acceptor (tQa) were more significant in F. kerguelensis. The latter was also the only species being responsive to high acclimation pCO2, as these cells had enhanced relative electron transport rates (rETRs) and sigma PSII' while tQa and p were reduced under short-term exposure to high irradiance. Low CO2-acclimated cells of F. kerguelensis and all pCO2 acclimations of C. debilis and P. subcurvata showed dynamic photoinhibition with increasing irradiance. To test for the role and presence of the Mehler reaction in C. debilis and P. subcurvata, the light-dependence of O2 fluxes was estimated using membrane inlet mass spectrometry (MIMS). Our results show that the Mehler reaction is absent in both species under the tested conditions. We also observed that dark respiration was strongly reduced under high pCO2 in C. debilis while it remained unaltered in P. subcurvata. Our study revealed species-specific differences in the photophysiological responses to pCO2, both on the acclimation as well as the short-term level.