Browsing by Author "Bonnet, Sophie"

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    Dynamics of N2 fixation and fate of diazotroph-derived nitrogen in a low-nutrient, low-chlorophyll ecosystem: results from the VAHINE mesocosm experiment (New Caledonia)
    (2016) Bonnet, Sophie; Berthelot, Hugo; Turk-Kubo, Kendra; Fawcett, Sarah; Rahav, Eyal; L'Helguen, Stéphane; Berman-Frank, Ilana
    N2 fixation rates were measured daily in large (∼ 50 m3) mesocosms deployed in the tropical southwest Pacific coastal ocean (New Caledonia) to investigate the temporal variability in N2 fixation rates in relation with environmental parameters and study the fate of diazotroph-derived nitrogen (DDN) in a low-nutrient, low-chlorophyll ecosystem. The mesocosms were fertilized with  ∼ 0.8 µM dissolved inorganic phosphorus (DIP) to stimulate diazotrophy. Bulk N2 fixation rates were replicable between the three mesocosms, averaged 18.5 ± 1.1 nmol N L−1 d−1 over the 23 days, and increased by a factor of 2 during the second half of the experiment (days 15 to 23) to reach 27.3 ± 1.0 nmol N L−1 d−1. These later rates measured after the DIP fertilization are higher than the upper range reported for the global ocean. During the 23 days of the experiment, N2 fixation rates were positively correlated with seawater temperature, primary production, bacterial production, standing stocks of particulate organic carbon (POC), nitrogen (PON) and phosphorus (POP), and alkaline phosphatase activity, and negatively correlated with DIP concentrations, DIP turnover time, nitrate, and dissolved organic nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations. The fate of DDN was investigated during a bloom of the unicellular diazotroph UCYN-C that occurred during the second half of the experiment. Quantification of diazotrophs in the sediment traps indicates that ∼ 10 % of UCYN-C from the water column was exported daily to the traps, representing as much as 22.4 ± 5.5 % of the total POC exported at the height of the UCYN-C bloom. This export was mainly due to the aggregation of small (5.7 ± 0.8 µm) UCYN-C cells into large (100–500 µm) aggregates. During the same time period, a DDN transfer experiment based on high-resolution nanometer-scale secondary ion mass spectrometry (nanoSIMS) coupled with 15N2 isotopic labeling revealed that 16 ± 6 % of the DDN was released to the dissolved pool and 21 ± 4 % was transferred to non-diazotrophic plankton, mainly picoplankton (18 ± 4 %) followed by diatoms (3 ± 2 %). This is consistent with the observed dramatic increase in picoplankton and diatom abundances, primary production, bacterial production, and standing stocks of POC, PON, and POP in the mesocosms during the second half of the experiment. These results offer insights into the fate of DDN during a bloom of UCYN-C in low-nutrient, low-chlorophyll ecosystems.
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    Nitrogen isotopic evidence for a shift from nitrate- to diazotroph-fueled export production in the VAHINE mesocosm experiments
    (2016) Knapp, Angela N; Fawcett, Sarah E; Martínez-Garcia, Alfredo; Leblond, Nathalie; Moutin, Thierry; Bonnet, Sophie
    In a coastal lagoon with a shallow, 25 m water column off the southwest coast of New Caledonia, large-volume ( ∼  50 m3) mesocosm experiments were undertaken to track the fate of newly fixed nitrogen (N). The mesocosms were intentionally fertilized with 0.8 µM dissolved inorganic phosphorus to stimulate diazotrophy. N isotopic evidence indicates that the dominant source of N fueling export production shifted from subsurface nitrate (NO3−) assimilated prior to the start of the 23-day experiments to N2 fixation by the end of the experiments. While the δ15N of the sinking particulate N (PNsink) flux changed during the experiments, the δ15N of the suspended PN (PNsusp) and dissolved organic N (DON) pools did not. This is consistent with previous observations that the δ15N of surface ocean N pools is less responsive than that of PNsink to changes in the dominant source of new N to surface waters. In spite of the absence of detectable NO3− in the mesocosms, the δ15N of PNsink indicated that NO3− continued to fuel a significant fraction of export production (20 to 60 %) throughout the 23-day experiments, with N2 fixation dominating export after about 2 weeks. The low rates of organic N export during the first 14 days were largely supported by NO3−, and phytoplankton abundance data suggest that sinking material primarily comprised large diatoms. Concurrent molecular and taxonomic studies indicate that the diazotroph community was dominated by diatom–diazotroph assemblages (DDAs) at this time. However, these DDAs represented a minor fraction (< 5 %) of the total diatom community and contributed very little new N via N2 fixation; they were thus not important for driving export production, either directly or indirectly. The unicellular cyanobacterial diazotroph, a Cyanothece-like UCYN-C, proliferated during the last phase of the experiments when N2 fixation, primary production, and the flux of PNsink increased significantly, and δ15N budgets reflected a predominantly diazotrophic source of N fueling export. At this time, the export flux itself was likely dominated by the non-diazotrophic diatom, Cylindrotheca closterium, along with lesser contributions from other eukaryotic phytoplankton and aggregated UCYN-C cells, as well as fecal pellets from zooplankton. Despite comprising a small fraction of the total biomass, UCYN-C was largely responsible for driving export production during the last  ∼  10 days of the experiments both directly ( ∼  5 to 22 % of PNsink) and through the rapid transfer of its newly fixed N to other phytoplankton; we infer that this newly fixed N was transferred rapidly through the dissolved N (including DON) and PNsusp pools. This inference reconciles previous observations of invariant oligotrophic surface ocean DON concentrations and δ15N with incubation studies showing that diazotrophs can release a significant fraction of their newly fixed N as some form of DON.