Open AccessEnvironmental impacts on single-cell variation within a ubiquitous diatom: The role of growth rate
Author(s) -
Elisabeth Groß,
Maarten Boersma,
Cédric L. Meunier
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0251213
Subject(s) - phenotypic plasticity , abiotic component , thalassiosira weissflogii , biology , diatom , phytoplankton , growth rate , cell size , chlorophyll , ecology , botany , nutrient , zoology , microbiology and biotechnology , geometry , mathematics
Morphological and physiological characteristics of phytoplankton cells are highly sensitive to changes in environmental conditions and, in turn, influence the dynamics of phytoplankton populations and communities. To cope with environmental change, trait variability and phenotypic plasticity may play an important role. Since global change comprises simultaneous changes in abiotic parameters, we assessed the impact of multiple drivers on functional traits of the diatom Thalassiosira (Conticribra) weissflogii by manipulating concurrently temperature, pCO 2 , and dissolved nitrogen:phosphorus (N:P) ratio. We tested three scenarios: ambient (ambient temperature and atmospheric pCO 2 ; 16 N:P ratio), moderate future scenario (+1.5°C and 800 ppm CO 2 ; 25 N:P ratio), and more severe future scenario (+3°C and 1000 ppm CO 2 ; 25 N:P ratio). We applied flow cytometry to measure on single-cell levels to investigate trait variability and phenotypic plasticity within one strain of diatoms. Growth rates differed significantly between the treatments and were strongly correlated with cell size and cellular chlorophyll a content. We observed a negative correlation of growth rate with chlorophyll a variability among single strain populations and a negative correlation with the phenotypic plasticity of cell size, i.e. when growth rates were higher, the cell size cell-to-cell variability within cultures was lower. Additionally, the phenotypic plasticity in cell size was lower under the global change scenarios. Overall, our study shows that multiple traits are interlinked and driven by growth rate and that this interconnection may partly be shaped by environmental factors.