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Heterosigma akashiwo is a raphidophyte known for forming ichthyotoxic blooms. In order to predict the potential impacts of rising CO2 on H. akashiwo it is necessary to understand the factors influencing growth rates over a range of CO2 concentrations. Here we examined the physiology and gene expression response of H. akashiwo to concentrations from 200 to 1000ppm CO2. Growth rate data were combined from this and previous studies and fit with a CO2 limitation-inhibition model that revealed an apparent growth optimum around 600-800ppm CO2. Physiological changes included a significant increase in C:N ratio at ∼800ppm CO2 and a significant decrease in hydrogen peroxide concentration at ∼1000ppm. Whole transcriptome sequencing of H. akashiwo revealed sharp distinctions in metabolic pathway gene expression between ∼600 and ∼800ppm CO2. Hierarchical clustering by co-expression identified groups of genes with significant correlations to CO2 and growth rate. Genes with significant differential expression with CO2 included carbon concentrating mechanism genes such as beta-carbonic anhydrases and a bicarbonate transporter, which may underpin shifts in physiology. Genes involved in cell motility were significantly changed by both elevated CO2 and growth rate, suggesting that future ocean conditions could modify swimming behavior in this species.

Nitrogen fixation is an important yet still incompletely constrained component of the marine nitrogen cycle, particularly in the subsurface. A Video Plankton Recorder (VPR) survey in the subtropical North Atlantic found higher than expected Trichodesmium colony abundances at depth, leading to the hypothesis that deep nitrogen fixation in the North Atlantic may have been previously underestimated. Here, Trichodesmium colony abundances and modeled nitrogen fixation from VPR transects completed on two cruises in the tropical and subtropical North Atlantic in fall 2010 and spring 2011 were used to evaluate that hypothesis. A bio-optical model was developed based on carbon-normalized nitrogen fixation rates measured on those cruises. Estimates of colony abundance and nitrogen fixation were similar in magnitude and vertical and geographical distribution to conventional estimates in a recently compiled climatology. Thus, in the mean, VPR-based estimates of volume-specific nitrogen fixation rates at depth in the tropical North Atlantic were not inconsistent with estimates derived from conventional sampling methods. Based on this analysis, if Trichodesmium nitrogen fixation by colonies is underestimated, it is unlikely that it is due to underestimation of deep abundances by conventional sampling methods.

Climate change is predicted to increase the severity and prevalence of harmful algal blooms (HABs). In the past twenty years, omics techniques such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics have transformed that data landscape of many fields including the study of HABs. Advances in technology have facilitated the creation of many publicly available omics datasets that are complementary and shed new light on the mechanisms of HAB formation and toxin production. Genomics have been used to reveal differences in toxicity and nutritional requirements, while transcriptomics and proteomics have been used to explore HAB species responses to environmental stressors, and metabolomics can reveal mechanisms of allelopathy and toxicity. In this review, we explore how omics data may be leveraged to improve predictions of how climate change will impact HAB dynamics. We also highlight important gaps in our knowledge of HAB prediction, which include swimming behaviors, microbial interactions and evolution that can be addressed by future studies with omics tools. Lastly, we discuss approaches to incorporate current omics datasets into predictive numerical models that may enhance HAB prediction in a changing world. With the ever-increasing omics databases, leveraging these data for understanding climate-driven HAB dynamics will be increasingly powerful.

Every year harmful algal blooms (HABs) cause serious impacts to local economies, coastal ecosystems, and human health on a global scale. It is well known that nutrient availability can influence important aspects of harmful algae biology and ecology, such as growth, toxin production, and life cycle stage, as well as bloom initiation, persistence and decline. Increases in the rate of supply of organic matter to ecosystems (eutrophication) carries many possible ramifications to coastal systems, including the potential for nutrient enrichment and the potential for stimulation of harmful algal blooms. Traditional studies on algal nutrition typically use either cultured isolates or community level assays, to examine nutrient uptake, nutrient preference, elemental composition, and other metrics of a species’ response to nutrients. In the last decade, technological advances have led to a great increase in the number of sequences available for critical harmful species. This, in turn, has led to new insights with regards to algal nutrition, and these advances highlight the promise of molecular technologies, and genomic approaches, to improving our understanding of algal nutrient acquisition and nutritional physiological ecology, in both cultures and field populations. With these developments increased monitoring of nutritional physiology in field populations of harmful algae will allow us to better discriminate how eutrophication impacts these groups.

The toxic dinoflagellate Alexandrium fundyense is widespread in the northeastern part of North America, including the Gulf of Maine, and is responsible for seasonal harmful algal blooms in these regions. Even at low cell densities, A. fundyense toxins can accumulate in shellfish and result in paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP). PSP can be debilitating or lethal to humans and other shellfish consumers and is a public health concern. As a result, accurate measurements of A. fundyense distributions, particularly at low cell density, are critical to continued PSP monitoring and mitigation efforts. Towards this end we have developed a real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) method to monitor A. fundyense. Laboratory validation indicates that the qPCR assay is sensitive enough to detect 10 cells per sample, and that it does not detect co-occurring dinoflagellates such as Alexandrium ostenfeldii. The qPCR methodology was used to quantify A. fundyense cell densities in samples collected during a spring 2003 transect in the Gulf of Maine, and the data were compared to those obtained in parallel from light microscope and DNA hybridization-based methods. Results show that A. fundyense cell density was low during this period relative to typical cell densities required for PSP contamination of local shellfish, and that qPCR values were comparable to numbers determined by independent methods.

Ectoenzymes, or enzymes associated with the cell-surface or periplasmic space, play an important role in organic matter cycling by rendering certain forms of dissolved organic matter bioavailable. Ectoenzyme activities may thereby help meet the nutritional demands of harmful algae such as Prorocentrum minimum. The activities of two ectoenzymes; leucine aminopeptidase and alkaline phosphatase, have been studied in axenic cultures of P. minimum. Leucine aminopeptidase releases non-polar amino acids such as leucine from the N-terminus of polypeptides, whereas alkaline phosphatase is an enzyme that is able to hydrolyze phosphate from phosphomonoesters. P. minimum alkaline phosphatase is the better studied of the two ectoenzymes and its characteristics are reviewed herein. Future research on P. minimum physiology will benefit from a growing suite of tools available for assessing the activity of alkaline phosphatase and other ectoenzymes in field populations and ultimately the work done with P. minimum will be useful for studies of other harmful species.