Plankton, though microscopic, are essential to ocean health and global climate stability. Serving as the base of marine food chains, these organisms also contribute significantly to carbon storage. While laboratory research has long demonstrated that plankton can alter their cellular chemistry in response to environmental shifts, a newly published study reveals how these changes unfold across real oceanic environments.
Set to appear in Science Advances on May 23, 2025, the study was conducted by scientists from the Center for Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM) at the University of Bremen and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). By reanalyzing extensive lipid distribution data initially published by WHOI in 2022, researchers uncovered new insights into how plankton adapt to their surroundings.
Lead author Dr. Weimin Liu from MARUM emphasized the role of open science in this discovery. "By applying innovative methods to publicly available data, we revealed patterns of plankton adaptation that had previously gone unnoticed," Liu said.
The study analyzed more than 200 GB of mass spectrometry data, comprising lipid profiles from 930 ocean water samples collected in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic Oceans—from the surface down to 400 meters. By incorporating both known and unidentified lipids through network-based analysis, the team gained an unbiased, in-depth view of membrane lipid diversity among plankton.
Results showed that plankton’s lipid composition strongly reflects environmental conditions. In colder polar and subpolar waters, lipid diversity peaked, with organisms employing strategies such as shortening fatty acid chains to maintain membrane fluidity. In contrast, in nutrient-poor warm waters, plankton adjusted their lipid profiles accordingly. At deeper, darker depths, they increased unsaturated fatty acid production, likely as an adaptation to limited light.
“These lipid changes are a window into how plankton communities respond to their environment,” said Dr. Liu. “Because phytoplankton form the foundation of marine ecosystems, these adjustments can influence the entire food web in unexpected ways.”
The study highlights the power of combining environmental lipidomics with advanced data science techniques. It also reflects the growing impact of cheminformatics expertise developed within MARUM’s Cluster of Excellence, The Ocean Floor—Earth’s Uncharted Interface.
Source:https://phys.org/news/2025-05-plankton-cell-membrane-chemistry-temperature.html
This is non-financial/medical advice and made using AI so could be wrong.