Abstract
Carbon dioxide availability for microalgae in aquatic environments increases with decreasing water temperature, while photosynthetic activity generally decreases. Therefore, inorganic carbon acquisition by algal cells is greatly affected by temperature. We investigated half-saturation constants [Km(DIC), Km(CO2)] of inorganic carbon in photosynthesis under various temperatures for a strain of Chlamydomonas reinhadtii. C. reinhardtii showed an active carbon concentrating mechanism (CCM) at all temperature conditions investigated (5–25°C), implying that CCM activity is not diminished at low temperatures. The maximum photosynthetic rate was recorded at 15°C, while maximum CCM activity was detected at 20°C. A higher optimum temperature for CCM activity than for photosynthesis may compensate for lower photosynthetic rates above the optimum temperature. CCM may play a more significant role at higher temperatures in algal photosynthesis in aquatic environments.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 255-260 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Journal of Freshwater Ecology |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 2009 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We are grateful to J. Beardall for his comments on our manuscript. Thanks are also due to Y. Satoh for his help on the data analysis. This study was supported by KOPRI Project No. PE06060 and the research fund of H W (HYU-2008-T).