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Impact of environmental conditions on phospholipid fatty acid composition: implications from two contrasting estuaries

Aquatic Ecology volume 55, pages 1–20 (2021)Cite this article

Abstract

Phospholipid (PL) composition has a tremendous influence on the cell integrity and physiological competency. At the same time, plankton PL make important metabolic fuels for higher trophic levels. The goal of this study was to identify environmental control on PL production and their molecular identity of the suspended particles in two different estuaries. We conducted research in subtropical, eutrophic Wenchang River Estuary in China and temperate pristine, mesotrophic Krka River Estuary in Croatia. In agreement with the more abundant phytoplankton, PL concentrations were much higher in the Wenchang River Estuary (30.3–178.2 μg L−1) than in the Krka River Estuary (8.4–18.8 μg L−1). Given that six PL classes investigated (phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidylglycerol (PG), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidic acid (PA), phosphatidylinositol (PI), and phosphatidylserine (PS)) have different roles in the cell, we expected their different fatty acid composition in different environments. We found small differences in the fatty acid composition of PC, PG, and PI between two estuaries. These results suggest that the essential fatty acid compositions of these PL in estuarine plankton are relatively constant in order to preserve membrane functions and/or cell processes in which they are involved regardless of environmental conditions. In contrast, PE, PA and PS fatty acid composition substantially differed between two estuaries as well as throughout the salinity gradient in each estuary. This suggests the adaptability of plankton to remodel these PL depending on the environmental conditions and the plankton community structure. Good environmental conditions (favorable N/P ratio, temperature) are important for increased PL content (% in POC and total lipids) in estuarine plankton and increased essential polyunsaturated fatty acid content in PL, which is beneficial to higher trophic levels.

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Data availability

Data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Code availability

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the grant from the Croatian Science Foundation under the project IP-11-2013-8607, by a grant of the Bilateral collaboration between Croatia and China (No. 6–8 project in 2013), and by Ministry of Science and Technology in China (No. 2014CB441503). The authors thank Dr. Jelena Dautović for carrying out POC analyses of samples from the Krka River Estuary.

Funding

This work was funded by the grant from the Croatian Science Foundation under the project IP-11-2013-8607, by a grant of the Bilateral collaboration between Croatia and China (No. 6–8 project in 2013), and by Ministry of Science and Technology in China (No. 2014CB441503).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Marine and Atmospheric Biogeochemistry, Division for Marine and Environmental Research, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Bijenička cesta 54, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia

    Ivna Vrana Špoljarić, Tihana Novak, Blaženka Gašparović, Milan Čanković & Marina Mlakar

  2. Laboratory for Mass Spectrometry and Functional Proteomics, Division of Physical Chemistry, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Bijenička cesta 54, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia

    Snježana P. Kazazić

  3. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Rooseveltov trg 6, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia

    Zrinka Ljubešić

  4. Institute for Marine and Coastal Research, University of Dubrovnik, Kneza Damjana Jude 12, 20000, Dubrovnik, Croatia

    Enis Hrustić

  5. Laboratory for physical chemistry of traces, Division for Marine and Environmental Research, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Bijenička cesta 54, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia

    Marina Mlakar

  6. State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, No. 500 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai, 200241, People’s Republic of China

    Jinzhou Du & Zhuoyi Zhu

  7. School of Oceanography, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200030, People’s Republic of China

    Ruifeng Zhang

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  1. Ivna Vrana Špoljarić
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  2. Tihana Novak
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Contributions

IVŠ and SK did HPLC/MS/MS lipid and data analysis, TN analyzed and processed TLC-FID lipid data, MČ did environmental data analysis, ZLj analyzed pigments, EH and RZ performed nutrient analysis. BG, MM and ZZ conceived, planned and initiated the study; TN, MČ, JD, RZ, ZZ and BG performed field sampling, BG and IVŠ wrote the first manuscript draft. All authors discussed the results, edited the manuscript and approved the final submitted manuscript.

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Correspondence to Blaženka Gašparović.

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Vrana Špoljarić, I., Novak, T., Gašparović, B. et al. Impact of environmental conditions on phospholipid fatty acid composition: implications from two contrasting estuaries. Aquat Ecol 55, 1–20 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10452-020-09805-6

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Keywords

  • Phospholipids
  • Fatty acids
  • Estuaries
  • Temperate
  • Subtropical
  • Phytoplankton pigments