SeaFlow data v1, high-resolution abundance, size and biomass of small phytoplankton in the North Pacific

Abstract

SeaFlow is an underway flow cytometer that provides continuous shipboard observations of the abundance and optical properties of small phytoplankton (<5 μm in equivalent spherical diameter, ESD). Here we present data sets consisting of SeaFlow-based cell abundance, forward light scatter, and pigment fluorescence of individual cells, as well as derived estimates of ESD and cellular carbon content of picophytoplankton, which includes the cyanobacteria Prochlorococcus, Synechococcus and small-sized Crocosphaera (<5 μm ESD), and picophytoplankton and nanophytoplankton (2–5 μm ESD). Data were collected in surface waters (≈5 m depth) from 27 oceanographic cruises carried out in the Northeast Pacific Ocean between 2010 and 2018. Thirteen cruises provide high spatial resolution (≈1 km) measurements across 32,500 km of the Northeast Pacific Ocean and 14 near-monthly cruises beginning in 2015 provide seasonal distributions at the long-term sampling site (Station ALOHA) of the Hawaii Ocean Time-Series. These data sets expand our knowledge of the current spatial and temporal distributions of picophytoplankton in the surface ocean.

Diel oscillations in the feeding activity of heterotrophic and mixotrophic nanoplankton in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre

“…Flow cytometry samples were collected from the continuous seawater flow-through system (fixed sampling depth of 7 m: Ribalet et al 2019). Continuous measurements of Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus abundances and light scattering were made using SeaFlow (Swalwell et al 2011).…”

Marine community metabolomes carry fingerprints of phytoplankton community composition

“…Table S1 has summarized descriptions of the samples collected for metabolomics, with full description of each sample (including time of collection) in Table S4. In short, samples We estimated carbon contents for all the cultures from cellular volume (59), using an empirical relationship between flow cytometry-based cell size and PC (60), or using previous direct measurements (60,61,62). An abbreviated sample description is given in Table S3; full sample descriptions are in Table S7 (including carbon estimates and the method used for each species).…”

“…Samples for particulate carbon were sampled and processed as in (63). Underway flow cytometry data were acquired and processed as in (60). Samples for pigment analysis were filtered onto GF/F filters (Whatman), The polar fraction of this extract was analyzed on both reversed phase (RP) and hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) using the same solvents, columns, and gradients as previously reported (16).…”

Computational Analysis of Microbial Flow Cytometry Data

“…A few studies have used cell population identification methods to analyze microbial FCM data. These include the identification of physiological populations (i.e., high and low nucleic acid populations in marine and freshwater systems) ( 85 , 111 ), phytoplankton populations ( 88 , 90 ), or different strains of yeast ( 9 ). In contrast, fingerprinting methods have been more broadly applied in environmental microbiology, where they have been used to track changes in drinking water, sludge, and soil microbiome structures over time and in functions of environmental conditions ( 15 , 92 , 94 , 112 ).…”