Morphological and physiological responses of the cosmopolitan marine diatom Thalassiosira rotula to acidification

The experiment was conducted in 2019, using unialgal diatom cultures acclimated to optimal light, nutrient, and temperature conditions prior to acidification. Premixed CO2 gas concentrations were used to simulate current and future CO2 atmospheric conditions, and the cultures were acclimated under exponential growth for 10 generations.

Sampling was conducted at the end of the experiment. Data includes culture density, cell length and diameter, cell surface area and volume, chlorophyll-a biomass, and quotas of particulate carbon, nitrogen and silicon. Also included are measurements of carbon, nitrate, and silicic acid uptake rates from 4-hr stable isotope (carbon-13 and nitrogen-15) or radioisotope (silicon-32) incubation experiments.