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Nature Geoscience
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Significant silicon accumulation by marine picocyanobacteria

Nature Geosciencevolume 5, pages886–891 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

The marine silicon cycle is thought to be intimately tied to the carbon cycle through its effect on the growth of diatoms. These unicellular algae form substantial blooms in cold, nutrient-rich waters. Their dense, siliceous cell walls promote the sinking of particulate matter, and all the carbon and nutrients contained therein1. As such, diatoms are thought to be the primary organisms responsible for the low levels of dissolved silicon observed in the surface ocean and the export of mineral silica to depth. Here, we use synchrotron X-ray fluorescence microscopy to determine the elemental composition of individual diatoms and cyanobacterial cells from the eastern equatorial Pacific and the Sargasso Sea. We show that cells ofSynechococcus, a small unicellular marine cyanobacterium that dominates in nutrient-depleted waters2, can exhibit cellular ratios of silicon to sulphur, and silicon to phosphorus, approaching those detected in diatoms in the same location. Silicon accumulation was also observed in culturedSynechococcus strains. We estimate that the water column inventory of silicon inSynechococcus can exceed that of diatoms in some cases. We suggest that picocyanobacteria may exert a previously unrecognized influence on the oceanic silicon cycle, especially in nutrient-poor waters.

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Figure 1: Single-cell analyses of S, P and Si in organisms collected from the field.
Figure 2: Calculated inventories of Si within the euphotic zone of the EEP.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the NSF (CBET 0730061 and OCE 0527062 to B.S.T., OCE 527059 and OCE 0966201 to S.B.B.). H.M. was supported by an NSF REU grant to Bigelow Laboratory (OCE 0755142). D.A. was supported by the Simons Summer Research Fellowship at Stony Brook University. Use of the Advanced Photon Source, an Office of Science User Facility operated for the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory, was supported by the US DOE under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Stephen B. Baines and Benjamin S. Twining: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794-5245, USA

    Stephen B. Baines & Dylan Assael

  2. Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, East Boothbay, Maine 04544, USA

    Benjamin S. Twining & Hannah McDaniel

  3. Department of Ecology Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106-6150, USA

    Mark A. Brzezinski

  4. Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106-6150, USA

    Mark A. Brzezinski & Jeffrey W. Krause

  5. Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA

    Stefan Vogt

  6. Dartmouth College, Andover, New Hampshire 03755, USA

    Dylan Assael

  7. University of Maine, Orono, Maine 04469, USA

    Hannah McDaniel

Authors
  1. Stephen B. Baines
  2. Benjamin S. Twining
  3. Mark A. Brzezinski
  4. Jeffrey W. Krause
  5. Stefan Vogt
  6. Dylan Assael
  7. Hannah McDaniel

Contributions

S.B.B. and B.S.T. were responsible for the initial idea for the paper, and both were most involved in the writing and figure preparation, with substantial input from M.A.B. and J.W.K. All SXRF analyses were conducted by B.S.T. and S.B.B. S.V. provided logistics at the 2-ID-E microprobe at the Advanced Photon Source and oversaw analysis for X-ray fluorescence spectra. S.B.B., B.S.T., J.W.K. and M.A.B. all oversaw the various culture experiments. D.A. and H.M. were both involved in designing, conducting and analysing the culture experiments. J.W.K. and M.A.B. provided analyses of biogenic and lithogenic silica for the Sargasso samples that were collected by B.S.T.

Corresponding author

Correspondence toStephen B. Baines.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Baines, S., Twining, B., Brzezinski, M.et al. Significant silicon accumulation by marine picocyanobacteria.Nature Geosci5, 886–891 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1641

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