Mixotrophic Basis of Atlantic Oligotrophic Ecosystems

Overview

Journal Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Specialty Science

Date 2012 Mar 28

PMID 22451938

Citations 75

Authors

Manuela Hartmann

Carolina Grob

Glen A Tarran

Adrian P Martin

Peter H Burkill

David J Scanlan

Mikhail V Zubkov

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Oligotrophic subtropical gyres are the largest oceanic ecosystems, covering >40% of the Earth's surface. Unicellular cyanobacteria and the smallest algae (plastidic protists) dominate CO(2) fixation in these ecosystems, competing for dissolved inorganic nutrients. Here we present direct evidence from the surface mixed layer of the subtropical gyres and adjacent equatorial and temperate regions of the Atlantic Ocean, collected on three Atlantic Meridional Transect cruises on consecutive years, that bacterioplankton are fed on by plastidic and aplastidic protists at comparable rates. Rates of bacterivory were similar in the light and dark. Furthermore, because of their higher abundance, it is the plastidic protists, rather than the aplastidic forms, that control bacterivory in these waters. These findings change our basic understanding of food web function in the open ocean, because plastidic protists should now be considered as the main bacterivores as well as the main CO(2) fixers in the oligotrophic gyres.

Citing Articles

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