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Abstract In the California Current Ecosystem, upwelled water low in dissolved iron (Fe) can limit phytoplankton growth, altering the elemental stoichiometry of the particulate matter and dissolved macronutrients. Iron-limited diatoms can increase biogenic silica (bSi) content >2-fold relative to that of particulate organic carbon (C) and nitrogen (N), which has implications for carbon export efficiency given the ballasted nature of the silica-based diatom cell wall. Understanding the molecular and physiological drivers of this altered cellular stoichiometry would foster a predictive understanding of how low Fe affects diatom carbon export. In an artificial upwelling experiment, water from 96 m depth was incubated shipboard and left untreated or amended with dissolved Fe or the Fe-binding siderophore desferrioxamine-B (+DFB) to induce Fe-limitation. After 120 h, diatoms dominated the communities in all treatments and displayed hallmark signatures of Fe-limitation in the +DFB treatment, including elevated particulate Si:C and Si:N ratios. Single-cell, taxon-resolved measurements revealed no increase in bSi content during Fe-limitation despite higher transcript abundance of silicon transporters and silicanin-1. Based on these findings we posit that the observed increase in bSi relative to C and N was primarily due to reductions in C fixation and N assimilation, driven by lower transcript expression of key Fe-dependent genes. 

Abstract Coccolithophores are an important group of calcifying marine phytoplankton. Although coccolithophores are not silicified, some species exhibit a requirement for Si in the calcification process. These species also possess a novel protein (SITL) that resembles the SIT family of Si transporters found in diatoms. However, the nature of Si transport in coccolithophores is not yet known, making it difficult to determine the wider role of Si in coccolithophore biology. Here, we show that coccolithophore SITLs act as Na⁺‐coupled Si transporters when expressed in heterologous systems and exhibit similar characteristics to diatom SITs. We find thatCbSITLfromCoccolithus braarudiiis transcriptionally regulated by Si availability and is expressed in environmental coccolithophore populations. However, the Si requirement ofC. braarudiiand other coccolithophores is very low, with transport rates of exogenous Si below the level of detection in sensitive assays of Si transport. As coccoliths contain only low levels of Si, we propose that Si acts to support the calcification process, rather than forming a structural component of the coccolith itself. Si is therefore acting as a micronutrient in coccolithophores and natural populations are only likely to experience Si limitation in circumstances where dissolved silicon (DSi) is depleted to extreme levels.