Abstract:
There is increasing evidence that different light intensities or ocean acidification (OA) induced by elevated atmospheric CO
2 concentration can affect the photosynthetic capacity of marine diatom to different degrees, respectively however, little attention had been paid to their interaction on diatom. In this study, the growth rate, net photosynthetic rate (
Pn), biochemical composition, extracellular carbonic anhydrase (eCA) activity, and Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RubiscO) activity were investigated when
Phaeodactylum tricornutum was grown under different light intensities and CO
2 concentrations. The results showed that the specific growth rates and
Pn in
P. tricornutum were not significantly affected by CO
2 concentration under low light intensity (LL), whereas in presence of the high light intensity (HL), elevated CO
2 concentration was beneficial to promote the increase of the rate of
Pn. The eCA activity, chlorophyll content, and soluble protein content decreased with increase of CO
2 concentration, regardless of the high or low light. Under LL, RubiscO activity of HC-grown algae was 2.42 and 1.39 times higher than that of LC- or Medium-CO
2 (MC)-grown ones. However, RubiscO activity of HC-grown algae was 6.72 and 3.45 times greater than that of LC- or MC-grown ones under high light. These results indicate that the algae can adapt to changes of light intensity and CO
2 concentrations in the environment by adjusting the allocation of energy during the operation of the CO
2-concentrating mechanism and photosynthesis.