Global cycles of carbon and phosphorus decouple under intensifying ocean acidification as marine diatoms restructure their lipid membranes and downregulate organic phosphorus scavenging to adapt to the decreasing pH.
The global ocean absorbs roughly 25–30% of all anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions1, which drives acidification. Marine phytoplankton are a key component of this ocean carbon uptake, because they take in atmospheric CO2 via photosynthesis and ultimately sequester the carbon into the deep ocean through the biological carbon pump2. The efficiency of this pump is partially governed by the availability of phosphorus3, a key macronutrient required for fundamental components of cells, including nucleic acids, energy-transfer molecules and cellular membranes.
Now, writing in Nature Geoscience, Wang and colleagues4 show that ocean acidification intersects with intensifying phosphate limitation to reshape phytoplankton phosphorus metabolism in a fundamental way. The authors demonstrate that phytoplankton species adapt to elevated CO2 by adopting phosphorus-saving cellular strategies. The results indicate a decoupling between carbon and phosphorus, in which particulate organic biomass becomes progressively enriched in carbon relative to phosphorus, so that sinking material will carry less phosphorus per unit of carbon. This may reduce the long-term resupply of phosphorus to the surface ocean.
Larkin, A, 2026. Sparing use of phosphorus in an acidifying ocean. Nature Geoscience 19: 1258–1259. Article.
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