Abstract
Global estimates indicate the oceans are responsible for approximately half of the carbon dioxide fixed on Earth. Organisms ⩽5 μm in size dominate open ocean phytoplankton communities in terms of abundance and CO2 fixation, with the cyanobacterial genera Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus numerically the most abundant and more extensively studied compared with small eukaryotes. However, the contribution of specific taxonomic groups to marine CO2 fixation is still poorly known. In this study, we show that among the phytoplankton, small eukaryotes contribute significantly to CO2 fixation (44%) because of their larger cell volume and thereby higher cell-specific CO2 fixation rates. Within the eukaryotes, two groups, herein called Euk-A and Euk-B, were distinguished based on their flow cytometric signature. Euk-A, the most abundant group, contained cells 1.8±0.1 μm in size while Euk-B was the least abundant but cells were larger (2.8±0.2 μm). The Euk-B group comprising prymnesiophytes (73±13%) belonging largely to lineages with no close cultured counterparts accounted for up to 38% of the total primary production in the subtropical and tropical northeast Atlantic Ocean, suggesting a key role of this group in oceanic CO2 fixation.
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Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledge the captain, officers and crew aboard the RRS Discovery for their help during the cruise. We thank Eric Achterberg and other scientists, involved in the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) UK Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS) project NE/C001931/1, for an opportunity given to LJ to participate in the cruise. We also thank I Mary for advice on the cell concentrating procedure, W Gaze for sharing microscope facilities, F LeGall and D Vaulot for sharing cultures of the Roscoff Culture Collection and L Lehtovirta and M Nicoll for optimizing the DNA extraction protocol from sorted cells. This study was supported by NERC grant NE/C003160/1 and a NERC funded PhD studentship to JP.Authors contribution: DJS and MZ designed the study. Tracer work, FISH counts and data analysis was carried out by LJ. Flow cytometry work was performed by MVZ on board and by LJ ashore. JP and LJ constructed the genetic libraries. LJ, MVZ and DJS wrote the paper.
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Jardillier, L., Zubkov, M., Pearman, J. et al. Significant CO2 fixation by small prymnesiophytes in the subtropical and tropical northeast Atlantic Ocean. ISME J 4, 1180–1192 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2010.36
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