Niche partitioning among Prochlorococcus ecotypes along ocean-scale environmental gradients.
Prochlorococcus is the numerically dominant phytoplankter in the oligotrophic oceans, accounting for up to half of the photosynthetic biomass and production in some regions. Here, we describe how the abundance of six known ecotypes, which have small subunit ribosomal RNA sequences that differ by less than 3%, changed along local and basin-wide environmental gradients in the Atlantic Ocean. Temperature was significantly correlated with shifts in ecotype abundance, and laboratory experiments confirmed different temperature optima and tolerance ranges for cultured strains. Light, nutrients, and competitor abundances also appeared to play a role in shaping different distributions.
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 15 Vassar Street 48-419, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
Zackary I
ZI
Johnson
Erik R
ER
Zinser
Allison
A
Coe
Nathan P
NP
McNulty
E Malcolm S
EM
Woodward
Sallie W
SW
Chisholm
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D001267:Atlantic Ocean; D018533:Biomass; D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D017753:Ecosystem; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D020459:Genes, rRNA; D008027:Light; D009566:Nitrates / Q000032:analysis; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D048929:Prochlorococcus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D021521:Ribotyping; D012623:Seawater / Q000382:microbiology*; D013696:Temperature
D009566:Nitrates