Seasonal phosphorus depletion and microbial responses to the change in phosphorus availability in a subarctic coastal environment

Temporal variations of phosphorus (P) pools (soluble reactive P (SRP), dissolved organic P (DOP), and particulate P (PP)), alkaline phosphatase activity (APA), and orthophosphate uptake were measured in Funka Bay to describe the annual P cycle in the bay and determine the phytoplankton and bacterial responses to the change in P availability. Observations over 4 years demonstrated that SRP concentrations in the surface waters decreased from the winter maximum of 1.0 mu mol L(-1) to 0.3 mu mol L(-1) at the end of the spring phytoplankton bloom, and then to under the detection limit by around August. The DOP concentration was relatively constant at 0.1 mu mol L(-1) throughout the year with higher concentrations up to 0.3 mu mol L(-1) just after the peak of the spring bloom. PP concentrations varied around 0.1 mu mol L(-1) with higher concentrations up to 0.6 mu mol L(-1) during the high chlorophyll a concentration period. SRP comprised 85% of the total P pool prior to the spring bloom, but the contribution decreased to less than 30% in the post-bloom period and DOP dominated the P pool in the surface. Most of the measured APA was less than 0.1 nmol L(-1) min(-1) in the whole water column, but exceptionally high values up to 1.4 nmol L(-1) min(-1) were observed in low SRP surface waters during summer. When SRP decreased from 0.3 mu mol L(-1) in spring to under the detection limit in summer, turnover time for orthophosphate at 10 m depth decreased from 61 days to 4.2 h. The high APA and short turnover time for orthophosphate suggested that microbes in the surface mixed layer experienced severe P stress in summer. Under severely P stressed conditions, APA was detected mostly in the >10 mu m fraction, suggesting that large phytoplankton would acquire P from DOP to overcome the P stress. This was supported by the result that large phytoplankton were outcompeted by the 0.2-1 mu m sized microbes for orthophosphate uptake. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.