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Marine Plankton

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The Ecology of Cyanobacteria

Summary

Cyanobacteria are a taxonomically diverse, productive and biogeochemically important component of oceanic, coastaland estuarine phytoplankton communities. Recent molecular and analytical characterization of these communities, together with a growing number of cruise-based and remote-sensing surveys of the world’s ocean surface waters, indicate that cyanobacteria play a highly significant role in marine carbon and nitrogen cycling. Vast segments of the world?s ocean surface waters are nitrogen deplete and planktonic N2-fixing cyanobacteria can compete effectively in this large niche. Surfaceblooms of the filamentous diazotrophic genera Trichodesmium and Richelia (endosymbiont of the diatom Rhizosolenia) achieve magnitudes of growth in excess of hundreds of square kilometers in what are some of the most nutrient deplete, oligotrophic waters known. The N2-fixing enzyme complex, nitrogenase, is oxygen-sensitive and requires protection from ambient oxygen levels as well as from intracellular O2 evolved from photosynthetic activities of the cyanobacteria. Numerous molecular, physiological and structural adaptations ensure compatibility between an oxygenic phototrophic mode of growth and the need to fix N2. These adaptations include: spatial and temporal separation of photosynthesis and nitrogen fixation, formation of aggregates which can support O2 deplete microzones and respiratory and other enzymatic, O2 consuming mechanisms. Coccoid cyanobacteria such as Synechococcus, Synechocystis and Prochlorococcus are common and often dominant in the phytoplankton community in subsurface waters where they may account for more than 50% of the biomass. The picoplanktonic (< 5 μm) and nanoplanktonic (5 - 20μm) forms generally do not have the capacity to fix nitrogen; however, their small size, high surface to volume ratio, and ability to grow effectively in poorly illuminated, nutrient-rich deep waters ensure their access to nitrogen andother essential nutrients. Cyanobacteria that occupy and periodically dominate oligotrophic waters evolved various physiological, morphological and ecological strategies to optimize their capacities for nitrogen fixation, photosynthesis and nutrient (P, Fe) sequestration. Strategies include buoyancy regulation to ensure access to sunlight (energy), aggregation in colonies and consortia in which there are numerous interactions with an array of microheterotrophs and invertebrate grazers, close coupling of production and nutrient cycling within these communities, development of endosymbioses, intracellular nitrogen and phosphorus storage and the development of capacities for heterotrophy, photoheterotrophy, and pigment adaptation to counteract potential photooxidative conditions in surface waters. As a functional component of the phytoplankton, cyanobacteria exhibit remarkable ecophysiological flexibility and capacity for adaptation in response to anthropogenic alteration of the marine environment. In addition to their ability to thrive in oligotrophic waters, cyanobacteria can exploit nutrient-enriched estuaries and seas such as the Baltic, sometimes aspersistent nuisance blooms which may be toxic and a source of hypoxic and anoxic conditions.

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  1. Institute of Marine Sciences, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 3431 Arendell Street, Morehead City, North Carolina, 28557, USA

    Hans W. Paerl

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  1. University of Durham, Durham, England

    Brian A. Whitton

  2. Virginia Tech., Blackburg, USA

    Malcolm Potts

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Paerl, H.W. (2000). Marine Plankton. In: Whitton, B.A., Potts, M. (eds) The Ecology of Cyanobacteria. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-46855-7_5

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