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Increasing Transparent Exopolymer Particle (TEP) formation during diatom blooms as a result of elevated temperature and pCO2 have been suggested to result in enhanced aggregation and carbon flux, therewith potentially increasing the sequestration of carbon by the ocean. We present experimental results on TEP and aggregate formation by Thalassiosira weissflogii (diatom) in the presence or absence of bacteria under two temperature and three pCO2 scenarios. During the aggregation phase of the experiment TEP formation was elevated at the higher temperature (20°C vs. 15°C), as predicted. However, in contrast to expectations based on the established relationship between TEP and aggregation, aggregation rates and sinking velocity of aggregates were depressed in warmer treatments, especially under ocean acidification conditions. If our experimental findings can be extrapolated to natural conditions, they would imply a reduction in carbon flux and potentially reduced carbon sequestration after diatom blooms in the future ocean.

We conducted a series of roller tank incubations with surface seawater from the Green Canyon oil reservoir, northern Gulf of Mexico, amended with either a natural oil slick (GCS-oil) or pristine oil. The goal was to test whether bacterial activities of natural surface water communities facilitate the formation of oil-rich marine snow (oil snow). Although oil snow did not form during any of our experiments, we found specific bacterial metabolic responses to the addition of GCS-oil that profoundly affected carbon cycling within our 4-days incubations. Peptidase and β-glucosidase activities indicative of bacterial enzymatic hydrolysis of peptides and carbohydrates, respectively, were suppressed upon the addition of GCS-oil relative to the non-oil treatment, suggesting that ascending oil and gas initially inhibits bacterial metabolism in surface water. Biodegradation of physically dispersed GCS-oil components, indicated by the degradation of lower molecular weight n-alkanes as well as the rapid transformation of particulate oil-carbon (C: N >40) into the DOC pool, led to the production of carbohydrate- and peptide-rich degradation byproducts and bacterial metabolites such as transparent exopolymer particles (TEP). TEP formation was highest at day 4 in the presence of GCS-oil; in contrast, TEP levels in the non-oil treatment already peaked at day 2. Cell-specific enzymatic activities closely followed TEP concentrations in the presence and absence of GCS-oil. These results demonstrate that the formation of oil slicks and activities of oil-degrading bacteria result in a temporal offset of microbial cycling of organic matter, affecting food web interactions and carbon cycling in surface waters over cold seeps.

"It takes a village to finish (marine) science these days" Paraphrased from Curtis Huttenhower (the Human Microbiome project) The rapidity and complexity of climate change and its potential effects on ocean biota are challenging how ocean scientists conduct research. One way in which we can begin to better tackle these challenges is to conduct community-wide scientific studies. This study provides physiological datasets fundamental to understanding functional responses of phytoplankton growth rates to temperature. While physiological experiments are not new, our experiments were conducted in many laboratories using agreed upon protocols and 25 strains of eukaryotic and prokaryotic phytoplankton isolated across a wide range of marine environments from polar to tropical, and from nearshore waters to the open ocean. This community-wide approach provides both comprehensive and internally consistent datasets produced over considerably shorter time scales than conventional individual and often uncoordinated lab efforts. Such datasets can be used to parameterise global ocean model projections of environmental change and to provide initial insights into the magnitude of regional biogeographic change in ocean biota in the coming decades. Here, we compare our datasets with a compilation of literature data on phytoplankton growth responses to temperature. A comparison with prior published data suggests that the optimal temperatures of individual species and, to a lesser degree, thermal niches were similar across studies. However, a comparison of the maximum growth rate across studies revealed significant departures between this and previously collected datasets, which may be due to differences in the cultured isolates, temporal changes in the clonal isolates in cultures, and/or differences in culture conditions. Such methodological differences mean that using particular trait measurements from the prior literature might introduce unknown errors and bias into modelling projections. Using our community-wide approach we can reduce such protocol-driven variability in culture studies, and can begin to address more complex issues such as the effect of multiple environmental drivers on ocean biota.

Microbial communities play a key role in the marine carbon cycle, processing much of phytoplankton-derived organic matter. The composition of these communities varies by depth, season, and location in the ocean; the functional consequences of these compositional variations for the carbon cycle are only beginning to be explored. We measured the abilities of microbial communities in the large-particle fraction (retained by a 10-μm pore-size cartridge filter) to enzymatically hydrolyze high molecular weight substrates, and therefore initiate carbon remineralization in four distinct oceanic provinces: the boreal polar (BPLR), the Arctic oceanic (ARCT), the North Atlantic drift (NADR), and the North Atlantic subtropical (NAST) provinces. Since we expected the large-particle fraction to include phytoplankton cells, we measured the hydrolysis of polysaccharide substrates (laminarin, fucoidan, xylan, and chondroitin sulfate) expected to be associated with phytoplankton. Hydrolysis rates and patterns clustered into two groups, the BPLR/ARCT and the NADR/NAST. All four substrates were hydrolyzed by the BPLR/ARCT communities; hydrolysis rates of individual substrate varied by factors of ca. 1-4. In contrast, chondroitin was not hydrolyzed in the NADR/NAST, and hydrolytic activity was dominated by laminarinase. Fluorescence in situ hybridization of the large-particle fraction post-incubation showed a substantial contribution (15-26%) of CF319a-positive cells (Bacteroidetes) to total DAPI-stainable cells. Concurrent studies of microbial community composition and of fosmids from these same stations also demonstrated similarities between BPLR and ARCT stations, which were distinct from the NADR/NAST stations. Together, these data support a picture of compositionally as well as functionally distinct communities across these oceanic provinces.

Aggregation of algae, mainly diatoms, is an important process in marine systems leading to the settling of particulate organic carbon predominantly in the form of marine snow. Exudation products of phytoplankton form transparent exopolymer particles (TEP), which acts as the glue for particle aggregation. Heterotrophic bacteria interacting with phytoplankton may influence TEP formation and phytoplankton aggregation. This bacterial impact has not been explored in detail. We hypothesized that bacteria attaching to Thalassiosira weissflogii might interact in a yet-to-be determined manner, which could impact TEP formation and aggregate abundance. The role of individual T. weissflogii-attaching and free-living new bacterial isolates for TEP production and diatom aggregation was investigated in vitro. T. weissflogii did not aggregate in axenic culture, and striking differences in aggregation dynamics and TEP abundance were observed when diatom cultures were inoculated with either diatom-attaching or free-living bacteria. The data indicated that free-living bacteria might not influence aggregation whereas bacteria attaching to diatom cells may increase aggregate formation. Interestingly, photosynthetically inactivated T. weissflogii cells did not aggregate regardless of the presence of bacteria. Comparison of aggregate formation, TEP production, aggregate sinking velocity and solid hydrated density revealed remarkable differences. Both, photosynthetically active T. weissflogii and specific diatom-attaching bacteria were required for aggregation. It was concluded that interactions between heterotrophic bacteria and diatoms increased aggregate formation and particle sinking and thus may enhance the efficiency of the biological pump.

Observations that the majority of silica dissolution occurs within the upper 200 m of the ocean, and that sedimentation rates of diatom frustules generally do not decrease significantly with depth, suggested reduced dissolution rates of diatoms embedded within sinking aggregates. To investigate this hypothesis, silica dissolution rates of aggregated diatom cells were compared to those of dispersed cells during conditions mimicking sedimentation below the euphotic zone. Changes in the concentrations of biogenic silica, silicic acid, cell numbers, chlorophyll a and transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) were monitored within aggregates and in the surrounding seawater (SSW) during two 42-day experiments. Whereas the concentration of dispersed diatoms decreased over the course of the experiment, the amount of aggregated cells remained roughly constant after an initial increase. Initially only 6% of cells were aggregated and at the end of the experiment more than 60% of cells were enclosed within aggregates. These data imply lower dissolution rates for aggregated cells. However, fluxes of silica between the different pools could not be constrained reliably enough to unequivocally prove reduced dissolution for aggregated cells.