Phytoplankton growth after a century of dormancy illuminates past resilience to catastrophic darkness

Sofia Isabel dos Santos Ribeiro; Terje Berge; Nina Lundholm; Thorbjørn Joest Andersen; Fatima Abrantes; Marianne Ellegaard

doi:10.1038/ncomms1314

Phytoplankton growth after a century of dormancy illuminates past resilience to catastrophic darkness

Sofia Isabel dos Santos Ribeiro, Terje Berge, Nina Lundholm, Thorbjørn Joest Andersen, Fatima Abrantes, Marianne Ellegaard

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Abstract

Photosynthesis evolved in the oceans more than 3 billion years ago and has persisted throughout all major extinction events in Earth's history. The most recent of such events is linked to an abrupt collapse of primary production due to darkness following the Chicxulub asteroid impact 65.5 million years ago. Coastal phytoplankton groups (particularly dinoflagellates and diatoms) appear to have been resilient to this biotic crisis, but the reason for their high survival rates is still unknown. Here we show that the growth performance of dinoflagellate cells germinated from resting stages is unaffected by up to a century of dormancy. Our results clearly indicate that phytoplankton resting stages can endure periods of darkness far exceeding those estimated for the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction and may effectively aid the rapid resurgence of primary production in coastal areas after events of prolonged photosynthesis shut-down.

Original language	English
Article number	311
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	2
Number of pages	7
ISSN	2041-1723
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms1314
Publication status	Published - 2011

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title = "Phytoplankton growth after a century of dormancy illuminates past resilience to catastrophic darkness",

abstract = "Photosynthesis evolved in the oceans more than 3 billion years ago and has persisted throughout all major extinction events in Earth's history. The most recent of such events is linked to an abrupt collapse of primary production due to darkness following the Chicxulub asteroid impact 65.5 million years ago. Coastal phytoplankton groups (particularly dinoflagellates and diatoms) appear to have been resilient to this biotic crisis, but the reason for their high survival rates is still unknown. Here we show that the growth performance of dinoflagellate cells germinated from resting stages is unaffected by up to a century of dormancy. Our results clearly indicate that phytoplankton resting stages can endure periods of darkness far exceeding those estimated for the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction and may effectively aid the rapid resurgence of primary production in coastal areas after events of prolonged photosynthesis shut-down.",

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T1 - Phytoplankton growth after a century of dormancy illuminates past resilience to catastrophic darkness

AU - dos Santos Ribeiro, Sofia Isabel

AU - Berge, Terje

AU - Lundholm, Nina

AU - Andersen, Thorbjørn Joest

AU - Abrantes, Fatima

AU - Ellegaard, Marianne

N1 - Artikel ID: 311

PY - 2011

Y1 - 2011

N2 - Photosynthesis evolved in the oceans more than 3 billion years ago and has persisted throughout all major extinction events in Earth's history. The most recent of such events is linked to an abrupt collapse of primary production due to darkness following the Chicxulub asteroid impact 65.5 million years ago. Coastal phytoplankton groups (particularly dinoflagellates and diatoms) appear to have been resilient to this biotic crisis, but the reason for their high survival rates is still unknown. Here we show that the growth performance of dinoflagellate cells germinated from resting stages is unaffected by up to a century of dormancy. Our results clearly indicate that phytoplankton resting stages can endure periods of darkness far exceeding those estimated for the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction and may effectively aid the rapid resurgence of primary production in coastal areas after events of prolonged photosynthesis shut-down.

AB - Photosynthesis evolved in the oceans more than 3 billion years ago and has persisted throughout all major extinction events in Earth's history. The most recent of such events is linked to an abrupt collapse of primary production due to darkness following the Chicxulub asteroid impact 65.5 million years ago. Coastal phytoplankton groups (particularly dinoflagellates and diatoms) appear to have been resilient to this biotic crisis, but the reason for their high survival rates is still unknown. Here we show that the growth performance of dinoflagellate cells germinated from resting stages is unaffected by up to a century of dormancy. Our results clearly indicate that phytoplankton resting stages can endure periods of darkness far exceeding those estimated for the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction and may effectively aid the rapid resurgence of primary production in coastal areas after events of prolonged photosynthesis shut-down.

U2 - 10.1038/ncomms1314

DO - 10.1038/ncomms1314

M3 - Journal article

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SN - 2041-1723

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JO - Nature Communications

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Phytoplankton growth after a century of dormancy illuminates past resilience to catastrophic darkness

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