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- Title
Transition from a mixotrophic/heterotrophic protist community during the dark winter to a photoautotrophic spring community in surface waters of Disko Bay, Greenland.
- Authors
Bruhn, Claudia Sabine; Lundholm, Nina; Hansen, Per Juel; Wohlrab, Sylke; John, Uwe
- Abstract
Unicellular eukaryotic plankton communities (protists) are the major basis of the marine food web. The spring bloom is especially important, because of its high biomass. However, it is poorly described how the protist community composition in Arctic surface waters develops from winter to spring. We show that mixotrophic and parasitic organisms are prominent in the dark winter period. The transition period toward the spring bloom event was characterized by a high relative abundance of mixotrophic dinoflagellates, while centric diatoms and the haptophyte Phaeocystis pouchetii dominated the successive phototrophic spring bloom event during the study. The data shows a continuous community shift from winter to spring, and not just a dormant spring community waiting for the right environmental conditions. The spring bloom initiation commenced while sea ice was still scattering and absorbing the sunlight, inhibiting its penetration into the water column. The initial increase in fluorescence was detected relatively deep in the water column at ~55 m depth at the halocline, at which the photosynthetic cells accumulated, while a thick layer of snow and sea ice was still obstructing sunlight penetration of the surface water. This suggests that water column stratification and a complex interplay of abiotic factors eventually promote the spring bloom initiation.
- Subjects
GREENLAND; SPRING; DIATOMS; SEA ice; EUKARYOTES; FOOD chains; WINTER; HALOCLINE
- Publication
Frontiers in Microbiology, 2024, p1
- ISSN
1664-302X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.3389/fmicb.2024.1407888