Carbon sequestration capacity of eukaryotic phytoplankton in the ocean

The carbon sequestration capacity of phytoplankton in the ocean plays a key role in the global carbon cycle, but it has not been fully understood by scientists Recently, British scientists have shown that the carbon sequestration capacity of eukaryotic phytoplankton is comparable to that of cyanobacteria, and the total carbon sequestration capacity of eukaryotic phytoplankton is close to half of the total carbon sequestration capacity of marine phytoplankton In the past, it has been believed that cyanobacteria, which can be seen in most of the transparent areas of the ocean surface, dominate the field of carbon sequestration in the ocean, and its carbon sequestration capacity is second to none in the marine phytoplankton They convert carbon dioxide into carbon and other organic substances through photosynthesis, so as to play a role in carbon sequestration Cyanobacteria belong to prokaryotes, they have no nucleus, so they are different from eukaryotes For scientists, eukaryotic phytoplankton community is a "black box" that has not yet been solved Scientists have not fully understood the composition of its community and carbon sequestration capacity To fully understand the global carbon cycle, it is necessary to understand the carbon sequestration of different communities In a paper published in the April 15 issue of the Journal of the international society of microbial ecology, scientists from the University of Warwick and the National Oceanic center in the UK explained how they used seawater samples from the tropical and subtropical waters of the Northeast Atlantic Ocean to measure the carbon fixation capacity of floating plants They found that although the amount of eukaryotic phytoplankton in the ocean is lower than that of cyanobacteria, its carbon sequestration capacity is not low at all, which accounts for 44% of the total carbon sequestration of marine phytoplankton "This may be because eukaryotic phytoplankton cells are larger than cyanobacteria, allowing them to absorb more carbon," said Professor Mikhail Zubkov of the National Oceanic center The researchers divided eukaryotic cells into two groups, with "euka" cells more abundant in the ocean and "eukb" cells larger Molecular analysis shows that eukb cells contain more photosynthetic organic substances, most of which are unknown before and have never been cultured in the laboratory Professor Dave scanland of Warwick University pointed out that the dinoflagellate accounted for 38% of the total raw materials in the tropical and subtropical waters of the Northeast Atlantic Ocean, which indicated that they played a key role in carbon sequestration in the ocean He said it would take more extensive ocean sampling to confirm the conclusion Some of the organic carbon fixed by dinoflagellate and other eukaryotic phytoplankton is likely to eventually sink to the deep sea rather than return to the atmosphere of the earth in the form of carbon dioxide, the researchers believe.