Publications by authors named "Andrew J Irwin"

Article Synopsis
  • The study examines how the ratios of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus (C:N:P) in ocean particulate matter differ from the standard Redfield Ratio, impacting global carbon storage as these particles sink into the deep ocean.
  • Researchers found distinct latitudinal patterns in C:N:P ratios along a transect in the North Pacific, linking these patterns to the composition of macromolecules like proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids in oceanic particles.
  • The findings suggest that changes in phytoplankton community structure and nutrient availability are key factors driving variations in these ratios, indicating that physiological acclimation to nutrient supply is likely responsible for the observed latitudinal trends.
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Phytoplankton Chl:C:N:P ratios are important from both an ecological and a biogeochemical perspective. We show that these elemental ratios can be represented by a phytoplankton physiological model of low complexity that includes major cellular macromolecular pools. In particular, our model resolves time-dependent intracellular pools of chlorophyll, proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates/lipids, and N and P storage.

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Dinoflagellate genomes have a unique architecture that may constrain their physiological and biochemical responsiveness to environmental stressors. Here we quantified how nitrogen (N) starvation influenced macromolecular allocation and C:N:P of three photosynthetic marine dinoflagellates, representing different taxonomic classes and genome sizes. Dinoflagellates respond to nitrogen starvation by decreasing cellular nitrogen, protein and RNA content, but unlike many other eukaryotic phytoplankton examined RNA:protein is invariant.

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Marine planktonic diatoms are among the most important contributors to phytoplankton blooms and marine net primary production. Their ecological success has been attributed to their ability to rapidly respond to changing environmental conditions. Here, we report common molecular mechanisms used by the model marine diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana to respond to 10 diverse environmental stressors using RNA-Seq analysis.

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The elemental composition of marine microorganisms (their C:N:P ratio, or stoichiometry) is central to understanding the biotic and biogeochemical processes underlying key marine ecosystem functions. Phytoplankton C:N:P is species specific and flexible to changing environmental conditions. However, bulk or fixed phytoplankton stoichiometry is usually assumed in biogeochemical and ecological models because more realistic, environmentally responsive C:N:P ratios have yet to be defined for key functional groups.

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Article Synopsis
  • Density-dependent regulation plays a significant role in population dynamics, especially when combined with environmental variability, but this interaction has been underexplored in previous research.
  • Using a Bayesian modeling approach, the study derives a formula to understand how density regulation affects population variability in changing environments and validates these findings through simulations of both the Gompertz and Ricker population models.
  • The results indicate that stronger density regulation leads to higher population variability, and both environmental factors and density regulation must be considered together to accurately explain population variability in stochastic conditions.
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  • Housekeeping genes (HKGs) are important for cell maintenance and show low variation across different tissues and conditions, but in the marine diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana, 1505 HKGs were identified through RNA-seq analysis of 232 samples under various conditions.
  • The study found that less than 18% of HKGs in T. pseudonana have counterparts in other eukaryotes, and interestingly, these HKGs are typically longer due to elongated introns compared to non-HKGs.
  • The researchers suggest that the unique features of T. pseudonana's HKGs may be a result of specific evolutionary pressures that demand high expression levels with low variance, challenging the idea
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Dispersants can aid dispersion and biodegradation of oil in seawater, but the wider ecotoxicological effects of oil and dispersant to the base of marine food webs is unclear. Here we apply a metatranscriptomic approach to identify molecular responses of a natural marine microbial eukaryotic community to oil and chemically dispersed oil. Oil exposure stimulated the upregulation of ketogenesis in the eukaryotic community, which may alleviate carbon- and energy-limitation and reduce oxidative stress.

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Copepods are among the most abundant marine metazoans and form a key link between marine primary producers, higher trophic levels, and carbon sequestration pathways. Climate change is projected to change surface ocean temperature by up to 4°C in the North Atlantic with many associated changes including slowing of the overturning circulation, areas of regional freshening, and increased salinity and reductions in nutrients available in the euphotic zone over the next century. These changes will lead to a restructuring of phytoplankton and zooplankton communities with cascading effects throughout the food web.

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Stressful environmental conditions can induce many different acclimation mechanisms in marine phytoplankton, resulting in a range of changes in their photophysiology. Here we characterize the common photophysiological stress response of the model diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana to ten environmental stressors and identify diagnostic responses to particular stressors. We quantify the magnitude and temporal trajectory of physiological parameters including the functional absorption cross-section of PSII (σ ), quantum efficiency of PSII, non-photochemical quenching (NPQ), cell volume, Chl a, and carotenoid (Car) content in response to nutrient starvation (nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), silicon (Si), and iron (Fe)), changes in temperature, irradiance, pH, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) over 5 time points (0, 2, 6, 24, 72 h).

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We first present a predator-prey model for two species and then extend the model to three species where the two predator species engage in mutualistic predation. Constant effort harvesting and the impact of by-catch issue are also incorporated. Necessary sufficient conditions for the existence and stability of positive equilibrium points are examined.

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Article Synopsis
  • The filamentous cyanobacterium Pseudanabaena is often found alongside Microcystis during blooms, yet its response to iron limitation is not well understood compared to Microcystis, which has been extensively studied.
  • Pseudanabaena showed different growth responses to varying light intensities under iron limitation, with high light alleviating its negative effects, while low light made them worse, indicating that light conditions play a crucial role in its adaptability.
  • Pseudanabaena's strategy of lower investment in antenna pigments and higher photoadaptation and protection allows it to thrive under conditions of iron limitation, especially when light is plentiful, giving it an ecological edge over Microcystis.
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We introduce a Bayesian framework for simultaneous feature selection and outlier detection in sparse high-dimensional regression models, with a focus on quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping in experimental crosses. More specifically, we incorporate the robust mean shift outlier handling mechanism into the multiple QTL mapping regression model and apply LASSO regularization concurrently to the genetic effects and the mean-shift terms through the flexible extended Bayesian LASSO (EBL) prior structure, thereby combining QTL mapping and outlier detection into a single sparse model representation problem. The EBL priors on the mean-shift terms prevent outlying phenotypic values from distorting the genotype-phenotype association and allow their detection as cases with outstanding mean shift values following the LASSO shrinkage.

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The Deepwater Horizon oil spill released millions of barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, and saw widespread use of the chemical dispersant Corexit. We assessed the role of traits, such as cell size, cell wall, motility, and mixotrophy on the growth and photosynthetic response of 15 phytoplankton taxa to oil and Corexit. We collected growth and photosynthetic data on five algal cultures.

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Species-level variability has made it difficult to determine the relative sensitivity of phytoplankton to oil and mixtures of oil and dispersant. Here we develop a phytoplankton group sensitivity index using ribosome sequence data that we apply to a mesocosm experiment in which a natural microbial community was exposed to oil and two oil-dispersant mixtures. The relative sensitivity of four phytoplankton taxonomic groups, diatoms, dinoflagellates, green algae, and Chrysophytes, was computed using the log of the ratio of the number of species that increase to the number that decrease in relative abundance in the treatment relative to the control.

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The macromolecular composition of macroalgae influences nutrient flow and food quality in aquatic ecosystems and the value of macroalgae species for human consumption, aquaculture, biofuels, and other applications. We used literature data (125 publications, 1,117 observations) and a hierarchal Bayesian statistical model to estimate the average macromolecular composition, protein, lipid, and carbohydrate of macroalgae as a whole and at the phylum level. Our focus was on marine, noncalcified macroalgae sampled from wild-grown populations in the field.

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Diatoms are important contributors to marine primary production and the ocean carbon cycle, yet the molecular mechanisms that regulate their acclimation and adaptation to temperature are poorly understood. Here we use a transcriptomic approach to investigate the molecular mechanisms associated with temperature acclimation and adaptation in closely related colder- and warmer-adapted diatom species. We find evidence that evolutionary changes in baseline gene expression, which we termed transcriptional investment or divestment, is a key mechanism used by diatoms to adapt to different growth temperatures.

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Biogeochemical cycles in the ocean are strongly affected by the elemental stoichiometry (C:N:P) of phytoplankton, which largely reflects their macromolecular content. A greater understanding of how this macromolecular content varies among phytoplankton taxa and with resource limitation may strengthen physiological and biogeochemical modeling efforts. We determined the macromolecular basis (protein, carbohydrate, lipid, nucleic acids, pigments) of C:N:P in diatoms and prasinophytes, two globally important phytoplankton taxa, in response to N starvation.

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During the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the chemical dispersant Corexit was applied over vast areas of the Gulf of Mexico. Marine phytoplankton play a key role in aggregate formation through the production of extracellular polymeric materials (EPS), an important step in the biological carbon pump. This study examined the impacts of oil and dispersants on the composition and physiology of natural marine phytoplankton communities from the Gulf of Mexico during a 72-hour mesocosm experiment and consequences to carbon export.

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Nitrogen stress is an important control on the growth of phytoplankton and varying responses to this common condition among taxa may affect their relative success within phytoplankton communities. We analyzed photosynthetic responses to nitrogen (N) stress in two classes of phytoplankton that often dominate their respective size ranges, diatoms and prasinophytes, selecting species of distinct niches within each class. Changes in photosynthetic structures appeared similar within each class during N stress, but photophysiological and growth responses were more species- or niche-specific.

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Article Synopsis
  • Temperature and nutrient interactions significantly impact diatom and dinoflagellate dynamics in the East China Sea, with diatoms preferring lower temperatures and higher nutrients, while dinoflagellates thrive in low phosphorus and high N:P ratio conditions.
  • Predictive models suggest that by 2100, diatom populations may decline by 60%, while dinoflagellates could increase by 70% due to environmental changes such as warming and eutrophication.
  • These shifts in phytoplankton communities are likely to lead to more frequent and intense dinoflagellate blooms, which could disrupt coastal ecosystem functions.
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The elemental stoichiometry of microalgae reflects their underlying macromolecular composition and influences competitive interactions among species and their role in the food web and biogeochemistry. Here we provide a new estimate of the macromolecular composition of microalgae using a hierarchical Bayesian analysis of data compiled from the literature. The median macromolecular composition of nutrient-sufficient exponentially growing microalgae is 32.

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Anthropogenic climate change has shifted the biogeography and phenology of many terrestrial and marine species. Marine phytoplankton communities appear sensitive to climate change, yet understanding of how individual species may respond to anthropogenic climate change remains limited. Here, using historical environmental and phytoplankton observations, we characterize the realized ecological niches for 87 North Atlantic diatom and dinoflagellate taxa and project changes in species biogeography between mean historical (1951-2000) and future (2051-2100) ocean conditions.

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