Effect of growth rate on TEP production and aggregation by Thalassiosira weissflogii

Aggregation into larger particles is important in carbon cycling as it affects the vertical flux of carbon through the water column and the efficiency of the biological carbon pump. Thalassiosira weissflogii was grown in semi-continuous culture at a sequence of growth rates to test the hypothesis that growth rate affects the production of transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) by diatoms. As the growth rate increased, steady-state cell abundances decreased and cell volume increased. Carbohydrate concentration per cell was positively correlated with growth rate due to the larger volume of cells at higher growth rates. TEP particle concentration decreased with increasing growth rate. However the mean size of individual TEP particles and TEP production rate increased with increasing growth rate. Therefore, the total area of TEP was the same in all cultures, irrespective of growth rate. SYTOX green staining showed that the relative permeability of cells increased with decreasing growth rate, indicating that slow growing cells may potentially leak more dissolved organic matter into the surrounding environment. There were larger aggregates in cultures grown at relatively high growth rates. These data show that diatom growth rate affected TEP production, particle stickiness, and aggregates formation. Image of TEP