scholarly journals Impact of dust enrichment on Mediterranean plankton communities under present and future conditions of pH and temperature: an experimental overview

Author(s):  
Frédéric Gazeau ◽  
Céline Ridame ◽  
France Van Wambeke ◽  
Samir Alliouane ◽  
Christian Stolpe ◽  
...  

Abstract. In Low Nutrient Low Chlorophyll areas, such as the Mediterranean Sea, atmospheric fluxes represent a considerable external source of nutrients likely supporting primary production especially during stratification periods. These areas are expected to expand in the future due to lower nutrient supply from sub-surface waters caused by enhanced stratification, likely further increasing the role of atmospheric deposition as a source of new nutrients to surface waters. Yet, whether plankton communities will react differently to dust deposition in a warmer and acidified environment remains an open question. The impact of dust deposition both in present and future climate conditions was assessed through three perturbation experiments in the open Mediterranean Sea. Climate reactors (300 L) were filled with surface water collected in the Tyrrhenian Sea, Ionian Sea and in the Algerian basin during a cruise conducted in May/June 2017 in the frame of the PEACETIME project. The experimental protocol comprised two unmodified control tanks, two tanks enriched with a Saharan dust analog and two tanks enriched with the dust analog and maintained under warmer (+3 °C) and acidified (−0.3 pH unit) conditions. Samples for the analysis of an extensive number of biogeochemical parameters and processes were taken over the duration of the experiments (3–4 d). Here, we present the general setup of the experiments and the impacts of dust seeding and/or future climate change scenario on nutrients and biological stocks. Dust addition led to a rapid and maximum input of nitrate whereas phosphate release from the dust analog was much smaller. Our results showed that the impacts of Saharan dust deposition in three different basins of the open Northwestern Mediterranean Sea are at least as strong as those observed previously in coastal waters. However, interestingly, the effects of dust deposition on biological stocks were highly different between the three investigated stations and could not be attributed to differences in their degree of oligotrophy but rather to the initial metabolic state of the community. Finally, ocean acidification and warming did not drastically modify the composition of the autotrophic assemblage with all groups positively impacted by warming and acidification, suggesting an exacerbation of effects from atmospheric dust deposition in the future.

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (17) ◽  
pp. 5011-5034
Author(s):  
Frédéric Gazeau ◽  
Céline Ridame ◽  
France Van Wambeke ◽  
Samir Alliouane ◽  
Christian Stolpe ◽  
...  

Abstract. In low-nutrient low-chlorophyll areas, such as the Mediterranean Sea, atmospheric fluxes represent a considerable external source of nutrients likely supporting primary production, especially during periods of stratification. These areas are expected to expand in the future due to lower nutrient supply from sub-surface waters caused by climate-driven enhanced stratification, likely further increasing the role of atmospheric deposition as a source of new nutrients to surface waters. Whether plankton communities will react differently to dust deposition in a warmer and acidified environment remains; however, an open question. The potential impact of dust deposition both in present and future climate conditions was investigated in three perturbation experiments in the open Mediterranean Sea. Climate reactors (300 L) were filled with surface water collected in the Tyrrhenian Sea, Ionian Sea and in the Algerian basin during a cruise conducted in the frame of the PEACETIME project in May–June 2017. The experiments comprised two unmodified control tanks, two tanks enriched with a Saharan dust analogue and two tanks enriched with the dust analogue and maintained under warmer (+3 ∘C) and acidified (−0.3 pH unit) conditions. Samples for the analysis of an extensive number of biogeochemical parameters and processes were taken over the duration (3–4 d) of the experiments. Dust addition led to a rapid release of nitrate and phosphate, however, nitrate inputs were much higher than phosphate. Our results showed that the impacts of Saharan dust deposition in three different basins of the open northwestern Mediterranean Sea are at least as strong as those observed previously, all performed in coastal waters. The effects of dust deposition on biological stocks were different for the three investigated stations and could not be attributed to differences in their degree of oligotrophy but rather to the initial metabolic state of the community. Ocean acidification and warming did not drastically modify the composition of the autotrophic assemblage, with all groups positively impacted by warming and acidification. Although autotrophic biomass was more positively impacted than heterotrophic biomass under future environmental conditions, a stronger impact of warming and acidification on mineralization processes suggests a decreased capacity of Mediterranean surface plankton communities to sequester atmospheric CO2 following the deposition of atmospheric particles.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Dinasquet ◽  
Estelle Bigeard ◽  
Frédéric Gazeau ◽  
Farooq Azam ◽  
Cécile Guieu ◽  
...  

Abstract. In the oligotrophic waters of the Mediterranean Sea, during the stratification period, the microbial loop relies on pulsed inputs of nutrients through atmospheric deposition of aerosols from both natural (Saharan dust) and anthropogenic origins. While the influence of dust deposition on microbial processes and community composition is still not fully constrained, the extent to which future environmental conditions will affect dust inputs and the microbial response is not known. The impact of atmospheric wet dust deposition was studied both under present and future (warming and acidification) environmental conditions through experiments in 300 L climate reactors. Three dust addition experiments were performed with surface seawater collected from the Tyrrhenian Sea, Ionian Sea and Algerian basin in the Western Mediterranean Sea during the PEACETIME cruise in May–June 2017. Top-down controls on bacteria, viral processes and community, as well as microbial community structure (16S and 18S rDNA amplicon sequencing) were followed over the 3–4 days experiments. Different microbial and viral responses to dust were observed rapidly after addition and were most of the time higher when combined to future environmental conditions. The input of nutrients and trace metals changed the microbial ecosystem from bottom-up limited to a top-down controlled bacterial community, likely from grazing and induced lysogeny. The composition of mixotrophic microeukaryotes and phototrophic prokaryotes was also altered. Overall, these results suggest that the effect of dust deposition on the microbial loop is dependent on the initial microbial assemblage and metabolic state of the tested water, and that predicted warming, and acidification will intensify these responses, affecting food web processes and biogeochemical cycles.


Author(s):  
K. Lin ◽  
W. Zhai ◽  
S. Huang ◽  
Z. Liu

Abstract. The impact of future climate change on the runoff for the Dongjiang River basin, South China, has been investigated with the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). First, the SWAT model was applied in the three sub-basins of the Dongjiang River basin, and calibrated for the period of 1970–1975, and validated for the period of 1976–1985. Then the hydrological response under climate change and land use scenario in the next 40 years (2011–2050) was studied. The future weather data was generated by using the weather generators of SWAT, based on the trend of the observed data series (1966–2005). The results showed that under the future climate change and LUCC scenario, the annual runoff of the three sub-basins all decreased. Its impacts on annual runoff were –6.87%, –6.54%, and –18.16% for the Shuntian, Lantang, and Yuecheng sub-basins respectively, compared with the baseline period 1966–2005. The results of this study could be a reference for regional water resources management since Dongjiang River provides crucial water supplies to Guangdong Province and the District of Hong Kong in China.


Author(s):  
Pedram Mahdavi ◽  
Hossein Ghorbanizadeh Kharazi ◽  
Hossein Eslami ◽  
Narges Zohrabi ◽  
Majid Razaz

Abstract Global warming affected by human activities causes changes in the regime of rivers. Rivers are one of the most vital sources that supply fresh water. Therefore, management, planning, and proper use of rivers will be crucial for future climate change conditions. This study investigated the monitoring of hydrological drought in a future period to examine the impact of climate change on the discharging flow of the Zard River basin in Iran. Zard River is an important supplier of fresh and agricultural water in a vast area of Khuzestan province in Iran. A continuous rainfall-runoff model based on Soil Moisture Accounting (SMA) algorithm was applied to simulate the discharge flow under 10 scenarios (obtained from LARS-WG.6 software) of future climate change. Then, the Stream-flow Drought Index (SDI) and the Standard Precipitation Index (SPI) were calculated for each climate change scenario for the future period (2041–2060). The results of the meteorological drought assessment showed that near normal and moderate droughts had higher proportions among other drought conditions. Moreover, the hydrological drought assessment showed the occurrence of two new droughts (severe and extreme) conditions for the future period (2041–2060) that has never happened in the past (1997–2016).


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Céline Ridame ◽  
Julie Dinasquet ◽  
Søren Hallstrøm ◽  
Estelle Bigeard ◽  
Lasse Riemann ◽  
...  

Abstract. N2 fixation rates were measured in the 0–1000 m layer at 13 stations located in the open western and central Mediterranean Sea (MS) during the PEACETIME cruise (late spring 2017). While the spatial variability of N2 fixation was not related to Fe, P nor N stocks, the surface composition of the diazotrophic community indicated a strong eastward increasing longitudinal gradient for the relative abundance of non-cyanobacterial diazotrophs (NCD) (mainly γ-Proteobacteria) and conversely eastward decreasing for UCYN-A (mainly -A1 and -A3) as did N2 fixation rates. UCYN-A4 and A3 were identified for the first time in the MS. The westernmost station influenced by Atlantic waters, and characterized by highest stocks of N and P, displayed a patchy distribution of diazotrophic activity with an exceptionally high rate in the euphotic layer of 72.1 nmol N L−1 d−1, which could support up to 19 % of primary production. At this station at 1 %PAR depth, UCYN-A4 represented up to 94 % of the diazotrophic community. These in situ observations of higher UCYN-A relative abundance in nutrient rich stations while NCD increased in the more oligotrophic stations, suggest that the nutrient conditions could determine the composition of the diazotrophic communities and in turn the N2 fixation rates. The impact of Saharan dust deposition on N2 fixation and diazotrophic communities was also investigated, under present and future projected conditions of temperature and pH during short term (3–4 days) experiments at three stations. New nutrients from simulated dust deposition triggered a significant stimulation of N2 fixation (from 41 % to 565 %). The strongest increase in N2 fixation was observed at the stations dominated by NCD and did not lead on this short time scale to change in the diazotrophic community composition. Under projected future conditions, N2 fixation was either exacerbated or unchanged, in that later case this was probably due to a too low nutrient bioavailability or an increased grazing pressure. The future warming and acidification likely benefited NCD (Pseudomonas) and UCYN-A2 while disadvantaged UCYN-A3 without knowing which effect (alone or in combination) is the driver, especially since we do not know the temperature optima of these species not yet cultivated as well as the effect of acidification.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (19) ◽  
pp. 5423-5446
Author(s):  
Frédéric Gazeau ◽  
France Van Wambeke ◽  
Emilio Marañón ◽  
Maria Pérez-Lorenzo ◽  
Samir Alliouane ◽  
...  

Abstract. Although atmospheric dust fluxes from arid as well as human-impacted areas represent a significant source of nutrients to surface waters of the Mediterranean Sea, studies focusing on the evolution of the metabolic balance of the plankton community following a dust deposition event are scarce, and none were conducted in the context of projected future levels of temperature and pH. Moreover, most of the experiments took place in coastal areas. In the framework of the PEACETIME project, three dust-addition perturbation experiments were conducted in 300 L tanks filled with surface seawater collected in the Tyrrhenian Sea (TYR), Ionian Sea (ION) and Algerian basin (FAST) on board the R/V Pourquoi Pas? in late spring 2017. For each experiment, six tanks were used to follow the evolution of chemical and biological stocks, biological activity and particle export. The impacts of a dust deposition event simulated at their surface were followed under present environmental conditions and under a realistic climate change scenario for 2100 (ca. +3 ∘C and −0.3 pH units). The tested waters were all typical of stratified oligotrophic conditions encountered in the open Mediterranean Sea at this period of the year, with low rates of primary production and a metabolic balance towards net heterotrophy. The release of nutrients after dust seeding had very contrasting impacts on the metabolism of the communities, depending on the station investigated. At TYR, the release of new nutrients was followed by a negative impact on both particulate and dissolved 14C-based production rates, while heterotrophic bacterial production strongly increased, driving the community to an even more heterotrophic state. At ION and FAST, the efficiency of organic matter export due to mineral/organic aggregation processes was lower than at TYR and likely related to a lower quantity/age of dissolved organic matter present at the time of the seeding and a smaller production of DOM following dust addition. This was also reflected by lower initial concentrations in transparent exopolymer particles (TEPs) and a lower increase in TEP concentrations following the dust addition, as compared to TYR. At ION and FAST, both the autotrophic and heterotrophic community benefited from dust addition, with a stronger relative increase in autotrophic processes observed at FAST. Our study showed that the potential positive impact of dust deposition on primary production depends on the initial composition and metabolic state of the investigated community. This impact is constrained by the quantity of nutrients added in order to sustain both the fast response of heterotrophic prokaryotes and the delayed one of primary producers. Finally, under future environmental conditions, heterotrophic metabolism was overall more impacted than primary production, with the consequence that all integrated net community production rates decreased with no detectable impact on carbon export, therefore reducing the capacity of surface waters to sequester anthropogenic CO2.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frédéric Gazeau ◽  
France Van Wambeke ◽  
Emilio Marañón ◽  
Maria Pérez-Lorenzo ◽  
Samir Alliouane ◽  
...  

Abstract. Although atmospheric dust fluxes from arid as well as human-impacted areas represent a significant source of nutrients to surface waters of the Mediterranean Sea, studies focusing on the evolution of the metabolic balance of the plankton community following a dust deposition event are scarce and none were conducted in the context of projected future levels of temperature and pH. Moreover, most of the experiments took place in coastal areas. In the framework of the PEACETIME project, three dust-addition perturbation experiments were conducted in 300-L tanks filled with surface seawater collected in the Tyrrhenian Sea (TYR), Ionian Sea (ION) and in the Algerian basin (FAST) onboard the R/V “Pourquoi Pas?” in late spring 2017. For each experiment, six tanks were used to follow the evolution of chemical and biological stocks, biological activity and particle export. The impacts of a dust deposition event simulated at their surface were followed under present environmental conditions and under a realistic climate change scenario for 2100 (ca. +3 °C and −0.3 pH units). The tested waters were all typical of stratified oligotrophic conditions encountered in the open Mediterranean Sea at this period of the year, with low rates of primary production and a metabolic balance towards net heterotrophy. The release of nutrients after dust seeding had very contrasting impacts on the metabolism of the communities, depending on the station investigated. At TYR, the release of new nutrients was followed by a negative impact on both particulate and dissolved 14C-based production rates, while heterotrophic bacterial production strongly increased, driving the community to an even more heterotrophic state. At ION and FAST, the efficiency of organic matter export due to mineral/organic aggregation processes was lower than at TYR likely related to a lower quantity/age of dissolved organic matter present at the time of the seeding. At these stations, both the autotrophic and heterotrophic community benefited from dust addition, with a stronger relative increase in autotrophic processes observed at FAST. Our study showed that the potential positive impact of dust deposition on primary production depends on the initial composition and metabolic state of the investigated community. This potential is constrained by the quantity of nutrients added in order to sustain both the fast response of heterotrophic prokaryotes and the delayed one of primary producers. Finally, under future environmental conditions, heterotrophic metabolism was overall more impacted than primary production, with the consequence that all integrated net community production rates decreased with no detectable impact on carbon export, therefore reducing the capacity of surface waters to sequester anthropogenic CO2.


2007 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 1115-1126 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. J. Fowler ◽  
C. G. Kilsby ◽  
J. Stunell

Abstract. Over the last two decades, the frequency of water resource drought in the UK, coupled with the more recent pan-European drought of 2003, has increased concern over changes in climate. Using the UKCIP02 Medium-High (SRES A2) scenario for 2070–2100, this study investigates the impact of climate change on the operation of the Integrated Resource Zone (IRZ), a complex conjunctive-use water supply system in north-western England. The results indicate that the contribution of individual sources to yield may change substantially but that overall yield is reduced by only 18%. Notwithstanding this significant effect on water supply, the flexibility of the system enables it to meet modelled demand for much of the time under the future climate scenario, even without a change in system management, but at significant expense for pumping additional abstraction from lake and borehole sources. This research provides a basis for the future planning and management of the complex water resource system in the north-west of England.


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (19) ◽  
pp. 5607-5619 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Pulido-Villena ◽  
A.-C. Baudoux ◽  
I. Obernosterer ◽  
M. Landa ◽  
J. Caparros ◽  
...  

Abstract. The significant impact of dust deposition on heterotrophic bacterial dynamics in the surface oligotrophic ocean has recently been evidenced. Considering the central role of bacteria in the microbial loop, it is likely that dust deposition also affects the structure and the functioning of the whole microbial food web. In the frame of the DUNE project, aiming to estimate the impact of dust deposition on the oligotrophic Mediterranean Sea through mesocosm experiments, the main goal of the present paper was to assess how two successive dust deposition events affect the dynamics of the microbial food web. The first dust seeding delivered new P and N to the amended mesocosms and resulted in a pronounced stimulation of bacterial respiration. It also induced pronounced, but transient, changes in the bacterial community composition. No significant effects were observed on the abundances of viruses and heterotrophic nanoflagellates. The second dust seeding also delivered new P and N to the amended mesocosms, but the effect on the microbial food web was very different. Bacterial respiration remained constant and bacterial abundance decreased. Compositional changes following the second seeding were minor compared to the first one. The decrease in bacterial abundance coincided with an increase in virus abundance, resulting in higher virus:bacteria ratios throughout the second seeding period. Our study shows that dust deposition to the surface oligotrophic ocean may involve important modifications of the trophic links among the components of the microbial food web with presumed consequences on C and nutrient cycling.


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 337-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Pulido-Villena ◽  
A.-C. Baudoux ◽  
I. Obernosterer ◽  
M. Landa ◽  
J. Caparros ◽  
...  

Abstract. The significant impact of dust deposition on heterotrophic bacterial dynamics in the surface oligotrophic ocean has recently been evidenced. Considering the central role of bacteria in the microbial loop, it is likely that dust deposition also affects the structure and the functioning of the whole microbial food web. In the frame of the DUNE project, aiming to estimate the impact of dust deposition on the oligotrophic Mediterranean Sea through mesocosm experiments, the main goal of the present paper was to assess how two successive dust deposition events affect the dynamics of the microbial food web. The first dust seeding delivered new P and N to the amended mesocosms and resulted in a pronounced stimulation of bacterial respiration. It also induced pronounced, but transient, changes in the bacterial community composition. No significant effects were observed on the abundances of viruses and heterotrophic nanoflagellates. The second dust seeding also delivered new P and N to the amended mesocosms but the effect on the microbial food web was very different. Bacterial respiration remained constant and bacterial abundance decreased. Compositional changes following the second seeding were minor compared to the first one. The decrease in bacterial abundance coincided with an increase in virus abundance, resulting in higher virus: bacteria ratios throughout the second seeding period. Our study shows that dust deposition to the surface oligotrophic ocean may involve important modifications of the trophic links among the components of the microbial food web with presumed consequences on C and nutrient cycling.


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