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The craving for phosphorus in heterotrophic dinoflagellates and its potential implications for biogeochemical cycles
Author(s) -
Meunier Cédric L.,
AlvarezFernandez Santiago,
CunhaDupont Alessandra Ö.,
Geisen Carla,
Malzahn Arne M.,
Boersma Maarten,
Wiltshire Karen H.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
limnology and oceanography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.7
H-Index - 197
eISSN - 1939-5590
pISSN - 0024-3590
DOI - 10.1002/lno.10807
Subject(s) - dinoflagellate , biogeochemical cycle , biomass (ecology) , nutrient , nutrient cycle , ecosystem , heterotroph , phosphorus , ecology , population , primary producers , environmental science , biology , phytoplankton , environmental chemistry , chemistry , genetics , demography , organic chemistry , sociology , bacteria
By altering the nutritional quality of primary producers, nutrient availability indirectly influences herbivores' population dynamics. In turn, the resulting relationship between diet, growth, and wastes has consequences for nutrient cycling at the ecosystem level. We studied the link between dinoflagellates nutritional requirements and feeding behavior, and its influence on nutrient cycling. We show that long‐term shifts in dissolved PO 4 concentration in the North Sea are closely linked to biomass trends of heterotrophic dinoflagellates and support this observation with experimental data indicating particularly high phosphorus requirements in dinoflagellates. At the seasonal scale, we observe a negative correlation between natural dinoflagellate abundances and the concentration of dissolved P, and we estimate that, in spring, up to 30% of dissolved P can end up in microzooplankton biomass. Our study highlights that accounting for organismal metabolic requirement provides significant insight in interpreting and predicting nutrient cycles at the ecosystem level.