Dataset Information

The importance of local settings: within-year variability in seawater temperature at South Bay, Western Antarctic Peninsula.

ABSTRACT: The Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) has undergone significant changes in air and seawater temperatures during the last 50 years. Although highly stenotherm Antarctic organisms are expected to be severely affected by the increase of seawater temperature, high-resolution datasets of seawater temperature within coastal areas of the WAP (where diverse marine communities have been reported) are not commonly available. Here we report on within-year (2016-2017) variation in seawater temperature at three sites on Doumer Island, Palmer Archipelago, WAP. Within a year, Antarctic organisms in South Bay were exposed to water temperatures in excess of 2 °C for more than 25 days and 2.5 °C for more than 10 days. We recorded a temperature range between -1.7° to 3.0 °C. Warming of seawater temperature was 3.75 times faster after October 2016 than it was before October. Results from this study indicate that organisms at South Bay are already exposed to temperatures that are being used in experimental studies to evaluate physiological responses to thermal stress in WAP organisms. Continuous measurements of short to long-term variability in seawater temperature provides important information for parametrizing meaningful experimental treatments that aim to assess the local effects of environmental variation on Antarctic organisms under future climate scenarios.

SUBMITTER: Cardenas CA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5776021 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The importance of local settings: within-year variability in seawater temperature at South Bay, Western Antarctic Peninsula.

Cárdenas César A CA González-Aravena Marcelo M Santibañez Pamela A PA

PeerJ 20180118

The Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) has undergone significant changes in air and seawater temperatures during the last 50 years. Although highly stenotherm Antarctic organisms are expected to be severely affected by the increase of seawater temperature, high-resolution datasets of seawater temperature within coastal areas of the WAP (where diverse marine communities have been reported) are not commonly available. Here we report on within-year (2016-2017) variation in seawater temperature at th ...[more]

PMID: 29372123

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Project description:Although crucial for the addition of new nitrogen in marine ecosystems, dinitrogen (N2) fixation remains an understudied process, especially under dark conditions and in polar coastal areas, such as the West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP). New measurements of light and dark N2 fixation rates in parallel with carbon (C) fixation rates, as well as analysis of the genetic marker nifH for diazotrophic organisms, were conducted during the late summer in the coastal waters of Chile Bay, South Shetland Islands, WAP. During six late summers (February 2013 to 2019), Chile Bay was characterized by high NO3- concentrations (~20 µM) and an NH4+ content that remained stable near 0.5 µM. The N:P ratio was approximately 14.1, thus close to that of the Redfield ratio (16:1). The presence of Cluster I and Cluster III nifH gene sequences closely related to Alpha-, Delta- and, to a lesser extent, Gammaproteobacteria, suggests that chemosynthetic and heterotrophic bacteria are primarily responsible for N2 fixation in the bay. Photosynthetic carbon assimilation ranged from 51.18 to 1471 nmol C L-1 d-1, while dark chemosynthesis ranged from 9.24 to 805 nmol C L-1 d-1. N2 fixation rates were higher under dark conditions (up to 45.40 nmol N L-1 d-1) than under light conditions (up to 7.70 nmol N L-1 d-1), possibly contributing more than 37% to new nitrogen-based production (≥2.5 g N m-2 y-1). Of all the environmental factors measured, only PO43- exhibited a significant correlation with C and N2 rates, being negatively correlated (p < 0.05) with dark chemosynthesis and N2 fixation under the light condition, revealing the importance of the N:P ratio for these processes in Chile Bay. This significant contribution of N2 fixation expands the ubiquity and biological potential of these marine chemosynthetic diazotrophs. As such, this process should be considered along with the entire N cycle when further reviewing highly productive Antarctic coastal waters and the diazotrophic potential of the global marine ecosystem.

Dataset Information

The importance of local settings: within-year variability in seawater temperature at South Bay, Western Antarctic Peninsula.

Publications

The importance of local settings: within-year variability in seawater temperature at South Bay, Western Antarctic Peninsula.

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