“…In fact, the Prochlorococcus genus is confined to a latitudinal belt of the world's oceans bounded roughly by the latitudes 45°N to 40°S, and cell concentrations are often much lower in coastal than in offshore areas (26,128,153,205,219,258). This contrasts with the much more ubiquitous oceanic distribution of the marine Synechococcus genus, which can be found in any ecosystem type up to the polar circle (102,154). Besides daily and seasonal patterns in the solar light environment, there may be concomitant changes in water column structure, e.g., stratified versus well-mixed water columns, which also magnify or alter the in situ light and nutrient gradients.…”