Replication Data for: Ecological stoichiometry of functional traits in a colonial harmful cyanobacterium

However, few studies have explicitly linked both frameworks. In this study, we tested the stoichiometric regulation of a number of carbon (C) based (e.g., extracellular polysaccharides (EPS) and colony formation) and nitrogen (N) containing traits (i.e., chlorophyll-a, phycocyanin and gas vesicle content) in cyanobacteria in laboratory experiments and in the field.

We exposed the cosmopolitan colony forming freshwater cyanobacterium Microcystis sp. in batch experiments to light, N and phosphorus (P) limitation, and enhanced CO2 levels, and assessed the regulation of these traits. Cyanobacterial traits followed stoichiometrically predictable patterns, where N containing traits increased with cellular N content, and decreased with increasing C:N ratios. C-based traits increased with cellular C content and C:N ratios under nutrient limitation, particularly N. The pattern of colony formation was confirmed with field data from Lake Taihu (China), showing an increase in colony size when N was limiting and N:P ratios were low.