Interactions Between Marine Group II Archaea and Phytoplankton Revealed by Population Correlations in the Northern Coast of South China Sea

Abstract

Marine Group II (MGII) archaea (Poseidoniales) are the most abundant surface marine planktonic archaea and are widely distributed in both coastal and pelagic waters. The factors affecting their distribution and activity are poorly understood. MGII archaea have the metabolic potential to utilize algae-derived organic matter and are frequently observed in high abundance during or following phytoplankton blooms, suggesting that they are key players of the marine food web. In this study, we studied interactions between MGII archaea and the diverse taxa of phytoplankton in the northern coast of South China Sea. Non-metric multidimensional scaling and cluster analyses demonstrated distinct MGII community patterns in the Pearl River plume (PRP) and the open regions of the northern South China Sea (ONSCS), with MGIIb dominating the former and MGIIa and MGIIb showing remarkable variations in the latter for the same sampling season. Nevertheless, positive correlations (Pearson correlation: R > 0.8 and P < 0.01) in absolute abundances of ribosomal RNA (rRNA)-derived complementary DNA and rRNA genes from network analyses were found between MGII archaea and phytoplankton (cyanobacteria, haptophytes, and stramenopiles in both PRP and ONSCS) among different particle size fractions, indicating their intrinsic relationships under changing environmental conditions. The results of this study may shed light on the multiple interactions between co-existing species in the micro-niches of different oceanic regions.

Microbial Diversity in Groundwater and Its Response to Seawater Intrusion in Beihai City, Southern China

“…Among them, the cell abundance of bacteria and archaea in the seawater collected from the sea near Zhuoluo were 2.96 × 10 10 cells/L and 3.51 × 10 8 cells/L, respectively. Our bacterial and archaeal estimates were higher than values obtained by other studies of coastal seawater, which generally range around the order of 10 9 and 10 6 ~ 10 8 cells/L, respectively ( Alderkamp et al, 2006 ; Lee and Bong, 2008 ; Carlson and Wiegner, 2016 ; Chen et al, 2022 ). This may have been related to the eutrophication of the water body in the Beibu Gulf region due to anthropogenic activity input and the high concentration of nutrient input from the Pearl River to Beibu Gulf via the Qiongzhou Strait ( Chen et al, 2019b ).…”

Gene inversion triggered origination of brackish archaeal heterotrophs in the aftermath of the Cryogenian Snowball Earth

“…Author contributions 26 Lu Fan and Chuanlun Zhang conceived this study. Bu Xu, Songze Chen, Fuyan Li, Wei Xie, Apoorva Prabhu, Dayu Zou, Ru Wan, Hongliang Li, Haodong Liu, Yuhang Liu, Shuji Gao, Jianfang Chen, Christian Rinke, and Meng Li collected the samples and extracted DNA.…”

“…Poseidoniales include two family-level subgroups, MGIIa (Poseidoniaceae) and MGIIb (Thalassarchaeaceae) 22 . Poseidoniaceae are found to be dominant in coastal areas where algal oligosaccharides would be more readily available, while most Thalassarchaeaceae are adapted to mesopelagic and oligotrophic waters where direct algal inputs are limited 26,27 .…”

“…Poseidoniales include two family-level subgroups, MGIIa (Poseidoniaceae) and MGIIb (Thalassarchaeaceae) 22 . Poseidoniaceae are found to be dominant in coastal areas where algal oligosaccharides would be more readily available, while most Thalassarchaeaceae are adapted to mesopelagic and oligotrophic waters where direct algal inputs are limited 26,27 . Recently, high abundance of Poseidoniales 16S rRNA genes was reported at the Pearl River estuary mixing zone with salinity below 15 practical salinity unit (PSU) 28 , suggesting these populations of Poseidoniales might have evolved to adapt to brackish waters.…”

Spatial Discrepancy of Hydrodynamics‐Driven Impacts on Organic Biomarkers Deposition and ′ and TEX86 Temperature Proxies Applications

“…Changes in environmental conditions can be reflected in the abundances, compositions, and structures of molecular biomarkers (Di, 1995; Didyk et al., 1978; Fu & Sheng, 1992; Lamb et al., 2006; X. Liu et al., 2014). As biomarkers retain their original structures during deposition and diagenesis, and preserve in marine sediments over long periods (L. Ding et al., 2010; Meyers & Ishiwatari, 1993; Y. Wu & Zhang, 2001), organic compounds structure can be utilized as powerful indicators for understanding the paleoecology and elemental cycles, providing useful information to explore material inputs and depositional environments in the ocean (e.g., S. Chen et al., 2022; Y. Chen et al., 2022; J. Hu & Peng, 2017; Lamb et al., 2006; H. Liu et al., 2017; X. Liu et al., 2014; W. Wu et al., 2019; C. Zhang et al., 2015; J. J. Zhang et al., 2015).…”