Multi-interacting global-change drivers reduce photosynthetic and resource use efficiencies and prompt a microzooplankton-phytoplankton uncoupling in estuarine communities

Abstract

Plankton communities are subjected to multiple global change drivers; however, it is unknown how the interplaybetween them deviates from predictions based on single-driver studies, in particular when trophic interactionsare explicitly considered. We investigated how simultaneous manipulation of temperature, pH, nutrient availability and solar radiation quality affects the carbon transfer from phytoplankton to herbivorous protists andtheir potential consequences for ecosystem functioning. Our results showed that multiple interacting global change drivers reduced the photosynthetic (gross primary production-to-electron transport rates ratios, from0.2 to 0.6–0.8) and resource use efficiencies (from 9 to 1 μg chlorophyll a (Chl a) μmol nitrogen− 1) and prompteduncoupling between microzooplankton grazing (m) and phytoplankton growth (μ) rates (μ > m). The alteredtrophic interaction could be due to enhanced intra-guild predation or to microzooplankton growing at suboptimal temperatures compared to their prey. Because phytoplankton-specific loss rates to consumers grazing arethe most significant uncertainty in marine biogeochemical models, we stress the need for experimental approaches quantifying it accurately to avoid bias in predicting the impacts of global change on marine ecosystems.