Warwick F. Vincent

Distribution, phylogeny, and growth of cold-adapted Picoprasinophytes in Arctic Seas

Our pigment analyses from a year‐long study in the coastal Beaufort Sea in the western Canadian Arctic showed the continuous prevalence of eukaryotic picoplankton in the green algal class Prasinophyceae. Microscopic analyses revealed that the most abundant photosynthetic cell types were Micromonas‐like picoprasinophytes that persisted throughout winter darkness and then maintained steady exponential growth from late winter to early summer. A Micromonas (CCMP2099) isolated from an Arctic polynya (North Water Polynya between Ellesmere Island and Greenland), an ice‐free section, grew optimally at 6°C–8°C, with light saturation at or below 10 μmol photons·m−2·s−1 at 0°C. The 18S rDNA analyses of this isolate and environmental DNA clone libraries from diverse sites across the Arctic Basin indicate that this single psychrophilic Micromonas ecotype has a pan‐Arctic distribution. The 18S rDNA from two other picoprasinophyte genera was also found in our pan‐Arctic clone libraries: Bathycoccus and Mantoniella. The Arctic Micromonas differed from genotypes elsewhere in the World Ocean, implying that the Arctic Basin is a marine microbial province containing endemic species, consistent with the biogeography of its macroorganisms. The prevalence of obligate low‐temperature, shade‐adapted species in the phytoplankton indicates that the lower food web of the Arctic Ocean is vulnerable to ongoing climate change in the region.

Climate change effects on hydroecology of arctic freshwater ecosystems.

Abstract In general, the arctic freshwater-terrestrial system will warm more rapidly than the global average, particularly during the autumn and winter season. The decline or loss of many cryospheric components and a shift from a nival to an increasingly pluvial system will produce numerous physical effects on freshwater ecosystems. Of particular note will be reductions in the dominance of the spring freshet and changes in the intensity of river-ice breakup. Increased evaporation/evapotranspiration due to longer ice-free seasons, higher air/water temperatures and greater transpiring vegetation along with increase infiltration because of permafrost thaw will decrease surface water levels and coverage. Loss of ice and permafrost, increased water temperatures and vegetation shifts will alter water chemistry, the general result being an increase in lotic and lentic productivity. Changes in ice and water flow/levels will lead to regime-specific increases and decreases in habitat availability/quality across the circumpolar Arctic.

Effect of climate change relative to ozone depletion on UV exposure in subarctic lakes

The effect of stratospheric ozone depletion on increases in ambient levels of solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation in high-latitude regions has raised concerns about the response of northern ecosystems to environmental change. The concentration of coloured dissolved organic material, which is derived from terrestrial vegetation and acts as a screen for ultraviolet radiation, is low in high-latitude lakes. The underwater light environment in these lakes is therefore likely to be sensitive to small variations in the supply of this material, in addition to the effects of ozone depletion. Here we use fossil diatom assemblages in combination with bio-optical models to estimate the magnitude of past variations in the underwater light regime of a lake at the boreal tree line. We find large shifts in underwater UV-B, UV-A and photosynthetically available radiation associated with changes in the input of coloured dissolved organic material into subarctic lakes during the Holocene. The inferred changes in biological exposure to UV radiation were at least two orders of magnitude greater than those associated with moderate (30%) ozone depletion. Our findings indicate that freshwater ecosystems at present located across vegetation gradients will experience significant shifts in underwater spectral irradiance through the effects of climate change on catchment vegetation and the export of coloured dissolved organic material.

Cyanobacterial Dominance in the Polar Regions

Although cyanobacteria are often thought of as warm water organisms. they are the predominant biota in cold polar environments such as ice shelves. glaciers. glacial meltwater streams and ice-capped lakes. Cyanobacteria are the primary colonizers of glacial moraines after the retreat of ice sheets. and they play an important role in the carbon and nitrogen economy of tundra and polar desert soils. Various communities dominated by cyanobacteria inhabit exposed rock surfaces. while others occur within fissures and the interstitial spaces between crystals in certain Arctic and Antarctic rock types (See Chapter 13). Highly pigmented microbial mats dominated by Nostoc or oscillatorians (Oscillatoriaceae) are a feature of streams. lakes and ponds in both polar regions. with extreme accumulations up to 90 cm thick and >40 μg Chla cm-2 at some sites. Picocyanobacteria often dominate the phytoplankton of polar and subpolar lakes. In the coastal saline lakes of Antarctica picocyanobacteria achieve some of the highest natural concentrations on record. up to 8 x 106 cells mL-1. However. picocyanobacteria are conspicuously absent or rare in the adjacent polar oceans. The ecophysiological characteristics of high-latitude cyanobacteria that contribute to their success and dominance include: an ability to grow over a wide temperature range (but at slow rates); tolerance of desiccation, freezing and salinity stress; a variety of adaptive strategies against high levels of solar radiation (including ultraviolet radiation) in exposed habitats; and acclimation to shade allowing net growth in protected dim light environments. In many polar habitats, the large standing stocks of cyanobacterial biomass are the result of gradual accumulation over many seasons, with only minor losses via biotic and abiotic removal processes. Cyanobacteria are not successful in the polar oceans where slow, temperature-depressed and light-limited growth rates are unable to keep pace with the continuous losses due to grazing, advection and mixing.

Evolutionary origins of Antarctic microbiota: invasion, selection and endemism

Increasing interest in the ecological roles, conservation and biotechnological potential of Antarctic microbiota has focused attention on their biodiversity and evolutionary origins. Antarctic microbial ecosystems provide useful models for general questions in evolutionary ecology given the relative isolation of the South Polar Region, the severe biological constraints imposed by the polar environment, and the absence of higher plants and animals in some Antarctic habitats. Sealed environments such as Lake Vostok and the overlying East Antarctic ice sheet provide unique, natural culture collections for studying microorganisms that have been isolated from the global gene pool over timescales of evolutionary significance. Most Antarctic environments, however, continue to receive microbial propagules from outside the region, as indicated by spore trap data, the microflora found in Antarctic snow and ice, the colonising taxa at geothermal sites, and the high frequency of apparently cosmopolitan species in most habitats. Differences in environmental stability and selection pressure among environments are likely to influence the degree of adaptive radiation and microbial endemism. The latter seems greater in the Southern Ocean by comparison with non-marine ecosystems of Antarctica, although there is some evidence of endemic species in highly specialised niches on the continent such as in the endolithic habitat and saline lakes. Analytical techniques such as 16S rDNA sequencing and DNA–DNA hybridisation are beginning to provide new insights into the genetic affinities and biodiversity of Antarctic microbiota, and are leading to a more rigorous evaluation of microbial endemism.

Climate Change Effects on Aquatic Biota, Ecosystem Structure and Function

Abstract Climate change is projected to cause significant alterations to aquatic biogeochemical processes, (including carbon dynamics), aquatic food web structure, dynamics and biodiversity, primary and secondary production; and, affect the range, distribution and habitat quality/quantity of aquatic mammals and waterfowl. Projected enhanced permafrost thawing is very likely to increase nutrient, sediment, and carbon loadings to aquatic systems, resulting in both positive and negative effects on freshwater chemistry. Nutrient and carbon enrichment will enhance nutrient cycling and productivity, and alter the generation and consumption of carbon-based trace gases. Consequently, the status of aquatic ecosystems as carbon sinks or sources is very likely to change. Climate change will also very likely affect the biodiversity of freshwater ecosystems across most of the Arctic. The magnitude, extent, and duration of the impacts and responses will be system- and location-dependent. Projected effects on aquatic mammals and waterfowl include altered migration routes and timing; a possible increase in the incidence of mortality and decreased growth and productivity from disease and/or parasites; and, probable changes in habitat suitability and timing of availability.

Global distribution of cyanobacterial ecotypes in the cold biosphere

Perennially cold habitats are diminishing as a result of climate change; however, little is known of the diversity or biogeography of microbes that thrive in such environments. Here we use targeted 16S rRNA gene surveys to evaluate the global affinities of cold-dwelling cyanobacteria from lake, stream and ice communities living at the northern limit of High Arctic Canada. Pigment signature analysis by HPLC confirmed the dominance of cyanobacteria in the phototrophic communities of these High Arctic microbial mats, with associated populations of chlorophytes and chromophytes. Microscopic analysis of the cyanobacteria revealed a diverse assemblage of morphospecies grouping into orders Oscillatoriales, Nostocales and Chroococcales. The 16S rRNA gene sequences from six clone libraries grouped into a total of 24 ribotypes, with a diversity in each mat ranging from five ribotypes in ice-based communities to 14 in land-based pond communities. However, no significant differences in composition were observed between these two microbial mat systems. Based on clone-library and phylogenetic analysis, several of the High Arctic ribotypes were found to be >99% similar to Antarctic and alpine sequences, including to taxa previously considered endemic to Antarctica. Among the latter, one High Arctic sequence was found 99.8% similar to Leptolyngbya antarctica sequenced from the Larsemann Hills, Antarctica. More than 68% of all identified ribotypes at each site matched only cyanobacterial sequences from perennially cold terrestrial ecosystems, and were <97.5% similar to sequences from warmer environments. These results imply the global distribution of low-temperature cyanobacterial ecotypes throughout the cold terrestrial biosphere.

BENTHIC AND PLANKTONIC ALGAL COMMUNITIES IN A HIGH ARCTIC LAKE: PIGMENT STRUCTURE AND CONTRASTING RESPONSES TO NUTRIENT ENRICHMENT1

We investigated the fine pigment structure and composition of phytoplankton and benthic cyanobacterial mats in Ward Hunt Lake at the northern limit of High Arctic Canada and the responses of these two communities to in situ nutrient enrichment. The HPLC analyses showed that more than 98% of the total pigment stocks occurred in the benthos. The phytoplankton contained Chrysophyceae, low concentrations of other protists and Cyanobacteria (notably picocyanobacteria), and the accessory pigments chl c2, fucoxanthin, diadinoxanthin, violaxanthin, and zeaxanthin. The benthic community contained the accessory pigments chl b, chl c2, and a set of carotenoids dominated by glycosidic xanthophylls, characteristic of filamentous cyanobacteria. The black surface layer of the mats was rich in the UV‐screening compounds scytonemin, red scytonemin‐like, and mycosporine‐like amino acids, and the blue‐green basal stratum contained high concentrations of light‐harvesting pigments. In a first bioassay of the benthic mats, there was no significant photosynthetic or growth response to inorganic carbon or full nutrient enrichment over 15 days. This bioassay was repeated with increased replication and HPLC analysis in a subsequent season, and the results confirmed the lack of significant response to added nutrients. In contrast, the phytoplankton in samples from the overlying water column responded strongly to enrichment, and chl a biomass increased by a factor of 19.2 over 2 weeks. These results underscore the divergent ecophysiology of benthic versus planktonic communities in extreme latitudes and show that cold lake ecosystems can be dominated by benthic phototrophs that are nutrient sufficient despite their ultraoligotrophic overlying waters.

TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE OF UV RADIATION EFFECTS ON ANTARCTIC CYANOBACTERIA

The mat‐forming cyanobacterium Phormidium murrayi West and West isolated from a meltwater pond on the McMurdo Ice Shelf was grown in unialgal batch cultures to evaluate the temperature dependence of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) effects on pigment composition, growth rate, and photosynthetic characteristics. Chlorophyll a concentrations per unit biomass were generally reduced in cells grown under UVR (low UV‐A plus UV‐B). In vivo absorbance spectra showed that the carotenoid/chlorophyll a ratio increased as a function of photosynthetically available radiation (PAR) and UVR exposure and varied inversely with temperature. Ultraviolet inhibition of growth (percentage reduction of μmax at each temperature) increased linearly with decreasing temperature, consistent with the hypothesis that net inhibition represents the balance between temperature‐independent photochemical damage and temperature‐dependent biosynthetic repair. There was no significant effect of UVR on photosynthesis over the first hour of exposure, but significant UV inhibition was observed after 5 days. Unlike growth, however, there was no apparent effect of temperature on the magnitude of UV inhibition of photosynthesis. These results imply that assays of UVR effects on photosynthesis are not an accurate guide to growth responses and that low ambient temperatures can have a major influence on the UV sensitivity of polar organisms. In a set of assays at 20° C (preacclimation under 300 μmol photons·m−2·s−1 and 20° C), growth was strongly depressed by UVR over the first day of exposure but then gradually increased over the subsequent 4 days, approaching the growth rates in the minus UVR control. This evidence of acquired tolerance indicates that the damaging effects of UVR will be most severe in environments where there is a mismatch between the timescale of change in exposure and the timescale of UV acclimation.

Strategies of adaptation by Antarctic cyanobacteria to ultraviolet radiation

Effects of UVA and UVB radiation were evaluated on two cyanobacterial strains (Phormidium murrayi and Oscillatoria priestleyi) isolated from the McMurdo Ice Shelf, Antarctica. The two isolates showed some similarities, but also major differences in their qualitative and quantitative responses to ultraviolet radiation (UVR). Growth decreased with increasing UVR, but with a 5-fold (UVA) or 10-fold (UVB) greater effect on O. priestleyi than P. murrayi. In both isolates, cellular concentrations of phycobiliproteins (measured by in vivo absorbance), and to a lesser extent chlorophyll a, diminished with increasing UVR exposure. Spectral scans of methanol extracts indicated the presence of UVR-screening compounds in O. priestleyi but not P. murrayi; however, the absorbance per unit dry weight was low, and similar in cultures with and without UVR. Carotenoid pigments increased up to a threshold UVB flux and thereafter decreased. In both isolates, moderate UVA lessened the effect of growth inhibition by UVB, consi...