Warming the phycosphere: differential effect of temperature on the use of diatom-derived carbon by two copiotrophic bacterial taxa.

Heterotrophic bacteria associated with microphytoplankton, particularly those colonizing the phycosphere, are major players in the remineralization of algal-derived carbon. Ocean warming might impact DOC uptake by microphytoplankton-associated bacteria with unknown biogeochemical implications. Here, by incubating natural seawater samples at 3 different temperatures we analyzed the effect of experimental warming on the abundance and C and N uptake activity of Rhodobacteraceae and Flavobacteria, two bacterial groups typically associated with microphytoplankton. Using NanoSIMS single-cell analysis we quantified the temperature-sensitivity of these two taxonomic groups to the uptake of algal-derived DOC in the microphytoplankton-associated fraction with 13 C-bicarbonate and 15 N-leucine as tracers. We found that cell-specific 13 C uptake was similar for both groups (~0.42 fg C h-1  μm-3 ), but Rhodobacteraceae were more active in 15 N-leucine uptake. Due to the higher abundance of Flavobacteria associated with microphytoplankton, this group incorporated 4-fold more carbon than Rhodobacteraceae. Cell-specific 13 C uptake was influenced by temperature, but no significant differences were found for 15 N-leucine uptake. Our results show that the contribution of Flavobacteria and Rhodobacteraceae to C assimilation increased up to 6-fold and 2-fold, respectively, with an increase of 3°C above ambient temperature, suggesting that warming may differently affect the contribution of distinct copiotrophic bacterial taxa to carbon cycling. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.