Plankton monitoring by microscopy offers a long-term ecological perspective of plankton communities, but different detection approaches are uniquely biased. Genetic identification of marine plankton has become standard but is still not used in routine monitoring. This study assesses the value that genetic methods bring to microscopic and flow cytometry monitoring methods in the Western (English) Channel. An 18S high throughput sequencing (HTS) diversity survey of plankton taxa was performed on samples collected from an automated Water and Microplankton Sampler (WaMS) deployed on the Continuous Plankton Recorder platform (CPR) from 2011–2012. The 18S-HTS survey of WaMS samples detected contrasting but complementary taxa assemblages to that of microscopic surveys, mostly composed of smaller or naked or thin-walled plankton taxa, with most phytoplankton being under 10 µm but most taxa in the survey being mixotrophic or heterotrophic but picking up rare phytoplankton. In comparison with microscopic phytoplankton counts from the CPR survey and Western Channel Observatory station L4, only 8–12 taxonomic families were common to all three surveys, most of them dinoflagellates, with a bias towards larger diatoms and dinoflagellate taxa in microscopy surveys. Additional quantitative real-time PCR detection of two potentially harmful taxa, the pelagophyte, Aureococcus anophagefferens and four Pseudo-nitzschia from 2011–2013. This confirmed the elevated growth of A. anophagefferens in the Western Channel in the summer of 2011 and the early appearance of Pseudo-nitzschia delicatissima in that year. Individual species’ occurrence or abundance was different from their genera or other same-sized groups. Smaller phytoplankton measured by flow cytometry had distinct seasonality in the mid-Atlantic compared to coastal regions.
pIgNAT vector contains nourseothricin-resistance gene (NAT) codon-optimised for expression in Isochrysis galbana, flanked by promoter/terminator from E. huxleyi HSP70.
Plankton monitoring by microscopy offers long-term ecological perspective of plankton communities but is biased towards those organisms that can be distinguished using the microscope. Genetic identification of marine plankton has become standard but is still not used. This study is a comprehensive study genetically measured taxa in the Western Channel of UK using a small-volume automated water sampler deployed on the CPR platform. The study present one year of high-throughput sequencing data focussing on smaller plankton and separate community to that measured by microscopy that can complement each other for a holistic view of plankton. Quantitative tests of two harmful algae show relatively high abundance of the Pelagophyte Aureococcus anophagefferens during 2011 with low nitrite levels. Three years of Pseudo-nitzschia delicatissima quantitative monitoring also shows a greater abundance of this potentially harmful taxa in 2011. Flow cytometry reveals distinct seasonal cycles with distinct timings.
Plankton monitoring by microscopy offers long-term ecological perspective of plankton com-munities but different detection approaches are biased uniquely. Genetic identification of marine plankton has become standard but is still not used in routine monitoring. This study assessed the diversity of plankton taxa using 18S high throughput sequencing from 2011-2012 from small-volume (~200ml) samples from the Water and Microplankton Sampler (WaMS) deployed on the Continuous Plankton Recorder platform (CPR). The 18S-HTS survey revealed a bias towards heterotrophic taxa, and phototrophs under 10µm within the photosynthetic community. In comparison with phytoplankton microscopic counts from the CPR survey and Western Channel Observatory station L4, only 8-12 taxonomic families were common to all three surveys, with a bias towards larger diatoms and dinoflagellate taxa in microscopy surveys. The WaMS survey detected a contrasting but complementary taxa set to that of microscopic surveys. Additional Quantitative PCR was carried out on the picoeukaryotic pelagophyte, Aureococcus anophagefferens, and the nanoeukaryotic potential harmful algae, Pseudo-nitzschia delicatissima, from 2011-2013. This confirmed the persistence presence of A. anophagefferens in the Western Channel and an elevated abundance of both species in 2011. Species specific seasonality were distinct from those of aggregrate phytoplankton groups.
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