Impact of UV radiation on plankton net community production: Responses in Western Australian estuarine and coastal waters
Type
ArticleKAUST Department
Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering (BESE) DivisionMarine Science Program
Red Sea Research Center (RSRC)
KAUST Grant Number
BAS/1/1072-01-01Date
2020-08-24Online Publication Date
2020-08-24Print Publication Date
2020-10-01Submitted Date
2020-02-06Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/665609
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Net community production (NCP) is a relevant parameter informing on the role of plankton communities as sinks or sources of CO2 in the ocean. We assessed the effect of ultraviolet (UV) radiation on NCP in different regions along the coast of Western Australia (WA). We compared 57 NCP measurements of surface communities receiving full-spectrum natural solar radiation, to communities with natural UVB radiation excluded (NCP−UV). Very high values of incident UVB radiation were registered, especially during spring and summer (up to 75 kJ m−2 d−1). Although a strong inhibitory effect of UVB on NCP was expected due to the high UVB levels, no significant differences between NCP and NCP-UV were observed in any sampled region. However, we found a general trend of NCP inhibition by 33.4 % under UVB radiation along the WA coast. While NCP of autotrophic communities tended to slightly decrease under UVB radiation, no robust pattern was observed for heterotrophic communities. Experiments measuring the response of NCP exposed to a gradient of enhanced UVB doses exhibited a UV dose-dependent inhibition of NCP in estuarine communities (i.e. higher inhibition with higher UVB doses), and a UV dose-independent inhibition in coastal communities. Our in situ data showed that the net metabolism of surface plankton communities from the coast of WA was insignificantly affected by elevated environmental UVB radiation levels.Citation
García-Corral, L., Duarte, C., & Agusti, S. (2020). Impact of UV radiation on plankton net community production: responses in Western Australian estuarine and coastal waters. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 651, 45–56. doi:10.3354/meps13456Sponsors
We thank María Comesaña and Lorena Vigoya for their assistance with sampling. This research was funded by the Australian Research Council's Discovery Project (project number DP140100825) and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) baseline funding BAS/1/1072-01-01 to S.A; L.S.G.C. was supported by a Juan de la Cierva Formación fellowship funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities at the King Juan Carlos University of Madrid, Spain.Publisher
Inter-Research Science CenterJournal
Marine Ecology Progress SeriesAdditional Links
https://www.int-res.com/abstracts/meps/v651/p45-56/ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.3354/meps13456
Scopus Count
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