Journal
LIMNOLOGY AND OCEANOGRAPHY
Volume 66, Issue 5, Pages 2051-2062Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/lno.11744
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Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [32071569]
- China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [2020M681472]
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [B210202010]
- China Scholarship Council [201806710165]
- USA National Science Foundation [1831096, 1840715]
- KNAW Visiting Professors Programme [KNAW WF/RB/3781]
- Science and Technology Project of Jiangsu Province [BE2018737]
- Division Of Ocean Sciences
- Directorate For Geosciences [1840715] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Trait-based approaches and ecological stoichiometry can help us better understand cyanobacteria responses to shifts in resource availability, with features following predictable stoichiometric patterns.
Trait-based approaches provide a mechanistic framework crossing scales from cellular traits to community dynamics, while ecological stoichiometry applies first principles to understand how the balance of energy and elements shape ecological interactions. However, few studies have explicitly linked both frameworks. In this study, we tested the stoichiometric regulation of a number of carbon (C) based (e.g., extracellular polysaccharides and colony formation) and nitrogen (N) containing traits (i.e., chlorophyll a, phycocyanin, and gas vesicle content) in cyanobacteria in laboratory experiments and in the field. We exposed the cosmopolitan colony forming freshwater cyanobacterium Microcystis sp. in batch experiments to light, N and phosphorus (P) limitation, and enhanced CO2 levels, and assessed the regulation of these traits. Cyanobacterial traits followed stoichiometrically predictable patterns, where N containing traits increased with cellular N content, and decreased with increasing C : N ratios. C-based traits increased with cellular C content and C : N ratios under nutrient, particularly N, limitation. The pattern of colony formation was confirmed with field data from Lake Taihu (China), showing an increase in colony size when N was limiting and N : P ratios were low. These findings demonstrate how an explicit coupling of trait-based approaches to ecological stoichiometry can support our mechanistic understanding of responses of cyanobacteria toward shifts in resource availability.
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