Abstract
Microalgae emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that can profoundly impact climate by leading to new particle formation and influencing clouds. Among these VOCs, dimethyl-sulphide (DMS) is of particular interest due to its key role in atmospheric processes. Despite its importance, many detailed processes linking microalgae and sea-atmosphere interactions remain poorly understood. We investigated the response of a freshwater and saltwater microalgal species of haptophytes known to produce DMS, to air entrainment and bubble-bursting mechanisms relevant for wave-breaking over the ocean. We show that bubbling resulted in the successful aerosolisation of microalgae and concurrent emission of DMS. In contrast, only background levels of DMS were detected when bubbling ceased, suggesting a critical role of bubbles in the sea-air exchange of DMS under the studied conditions. DMS mixing ratios were not correlated with the emitted particle concentrations and decreased over time, while particle concentrations remained stable. Bubbling also significantly reduced the viability of aquatic microalgae. Approximately half of the aerosolised microalgae were viable upon emission, but were not able to grow during subsequent cultivation recovery. Thus, the potential for microalgae to disperse to new environments via aerosolization is low, while their climate impact through the release of DMS remains substantial.
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Most of the data is provided within the manuscript or supplementary information files and all raw and analyzed data are avaiable at the Zenodo repository https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18078207.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank Sirje Sildever for technical support. The authors are grateful to the Aarhus University, Biology Department, Microbiology and Aquatic Biology units for access to environmental climate chamber and laboratory facilities. Flow cytometry was performed at the FACS Core Facility, Aarhus University, Denmark. The authors also thank Anders Feilberg for the constructive discussions and access to the PTR-ToF-MS. The authors thank Nassiba Baimatova and Dina Orazbayeva for constructive discussions on the optimisation of the DHS-GS-MS method.
Funding
B.R., J.T.S. and Z.T. were funded by a research grant from Villum Fonden(42128). S.T. was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Sk lodowska Curie grant agreement no. 754513 and The Aarhus University Research Foundation. B.R. and M.B. were funded by Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF19OC0056963) and M.B. and M.G. acknowledge the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF172) through the Center of Excellence for Chemistry of Clouds. M.Be. was funded by the Science Committee of the Ministry of Higher Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan (No.AP25796583 (2025-2027), AP26197327 (2025-2027).
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B.R. and S.V.M.T. conceived and designed the study. B.R. and S.V.M.T. performed the experiments assisted by J.T.S. and K.V.K. B.R. analysed OPSS and WELAS as well as PTR-ToF-MS data. S.V.M.T. analysed microalgae data from the impinger and bulk water. M.Be. and Z.T. performed the DMSP measurements and analyses supervised by M.G., M.Ba. the bionts analysis and K.V.K. the Tenax tube analysis. M.Bi. and M.G. contributed to interpreting the results. B.R. and S.V.M.T. wrote the original draft manuscript with contributions from all co-authors. All authors read and reviewed the manuscript.
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Genetic sequences are available on GenBank (PV799978-PV799979, URL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/). The authors declare a potential competing interest with the culture collection Bigelow - National Center for Marine Algae and Microbiota. We ordered the microalgal culture CCMP284, but received another microalgal species (taxonomy confirmed by genetic analyses). We notified the culture collection and repeatedly contact them, but did not received any clarifications. In the study, we refer to the investigated CCMP284 microalgae using its here-determined genetic name (Chrysotila dentata).
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Rosati, B., Skønager, J.T., Bektassov, M. et al. Aerosolisation of microalgae: unveiling dimethyl-sulfide emissions during bubbling. npj Clim Atmos Sci (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-025-01305-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-025-01305-4
