Widespread occurrence of a unicellular, marine, planktonic, cyanobacterium

Waterbury, John; Watson, Stanley W.; Guillard, Robert R. L.; Brand, Larry E.

doi:10.1038/277293a0

Cited by 811 publications

(387 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Yet, numerical maxima for cyanobacteria have been reported at the surface in the Arabian Sea and off the coast of Peru (Waterbury et al 1979), in southern California coastal waters (Krempin and Sullivan 198 l), and in the North Atlantic (Johnson and Sieburth 1982). We found high surface numbers but, especially in well stratified water, a second, deep maximum, at 75-100 m in oceanic waters, 25-50 m in slope waters, and 15-20 m in the Gulf of Maine.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…lo8 cells per liter in the surface waters of the world's oceans (Waterbury et al 1979;Johnson and Sieburth 1979). Less is known about the vertical distribution of these procaryotic cells, but Glover and Morris ( 198 1) have shown that they have lower light requirements than many larger eucaryotic phytoplankton, suggesting that their maximum abundances may occur deeper in the euphotic zone than numerical maxima of the larger eucaryotes. Minute eucaryotic cells in the size range ca.…”

Section: Most Of Us Who Have Worked With Open Ocean Phytoplanktonmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The distribution and abundance of phototrophic ultraplankton in the North Atlantic1,2

Murphy

Haugen

1985

Limnology & Oceanography

336

205

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We compared the vertical distribution and abundances of procaryotic chroococcoid cyanobacteria (Synechococcus) and eucaryotic phototrophic ultraplankton at 50 stations in the North Atlantic. At 34 of these stations, cells were also separated by filter-size fractionation, permitting comparison of the distribution of size classes with the distribution of pigment types. Both eucaryotic ultraplankton and cyanobacteria have subsurface numerical maxima. In vertically stable water, cyanobacterial abundance peaks at about the 1% light level and that of the eucaryotic ultraplankton at about the 0.5% light level. Cyanobacterial abundance decreases with northerly increasing latitude, and this decrease correlates with decreasing temperature. The eucaryotic assemblage is numerically dominated by the ultraplankton.The numbers of the ultraplankton generally range one order of magnitude less than the cyanobacteria, but they may equal or exceed cyanobacteria at depth and in northerly latitudes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Most Of Us Who Have Worked With Open Ocean Phytoplanktonmentioning

confidence: 99%

The distribution and abundance of phototrophic ultraplankton in the North Atlantic1,2

Murphy

Haugen

1985

Limnology & Oceanography

336

205

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“…5B). The fact that the phytoplankton size structure in the oligotrophic Atlantic regions is dominated by picoplankton has repeatedly been observed since the early work of Waterbury et al (1979) and Herbland and Le Bouteiller (1981) and re#ects a general feature of the open tropical ocean (Le Bouteiller et al, 1992).…”

Section: Chlorophyll a And Phytoplankton Biomassmentioning

confidence: 99%

Basin-scale variability of phytoplankton biomass, production and growth in the Atlantic Ocean

Marañón

Holligan

Varela

et al. 2000

Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers

198

159

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The latitudinal distributions of phytoplankton biomass, composition and production in the Atlantic Ocean were determined along a 10,000-km transect from 503N to 503S in October 1995, May 1996 and October 1996. Highest levels of euphotic layer-integrated chlorophyll a (Chl a) concentration (75}125 mg Chl m\ ) were found in North Atlantic temperate waters and in the upwelling region o! NW Africa, whereas typical Chl a concentrations in oligotrophic waters ranged from 20 to 40 mg Chl m\ . The estimated concentration of surface phytoplankton carbon (C) biomass was 5}15 mg C m\ in the oligotrophic regions and increased over 40 mg C m\ in richer areas. The deep chlorophyll maximum did not seem to constitute a biomass or productivity maximum, but resulted mainly from an increase in the Chl a to C ratio and represented a relatively small contribution to total integrated productivity. Primary production rates varied from 50 mg C m\ d\ at the central gyres to 500}1000 mg C m\ d\ in upwelling and higher latitude regions, where faster growth rates ( ) of phytoplankton ( '0.5 d\ ) were also measured. In oligotrophic waters, microalgal growth was consistently slow [surface averaged 0.21$0.02 d\ (mean$SE)], representing (20% of maximum expected growth. These results argue against the view that the subtropical gyres are characterized by high phytoplankton turnover rates. The latitudinal variations in were inversely correlated to the changes in the depth of the nitracline and positively correlated to those of the integrated nitrate concentration, supporting the case for the role of nutrients in controlling the large-scale distribution of phytoplankton growth rates. We observed a large degree of temporal 0967-0637/00/$ -see front matter 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 9 6 7 -0 6 3 7 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 0 8 7 -4 variability in the phytoplankton dynamics in the oligotrophic regions: productivity and growth rates varied in excess of 8-fold, whereas microalgal biomass remained relatively constant. The observed spatial and temporal variability in the biomass speci"c rate of photosynthesis is at least three times larger than currently assumed in most satellite-based models of global productivity.

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“…phyla, being a large, diverse and widespread group inhabiting most of the Earth's environments. They play an important role as primary producers (Chisholm et al, 1988 ;Waterbury et al, 1979), but are also capable of extensive growth, resulting in bloom events that can cause a significant threat to human and animal health (Carmichael, 1992). The current classification of cyanobacteria relies heavily upon morphological observations such as cell size, shape and arrangement (filamentous, colonial or single cells), coloration and the presence of characters such as gas vacuoles and a sheath (Castenholz & Waterbury, …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phylogenetic analyses of Synechococcus strains (cyanobacteria) using sequences of 16S rDNA and part of the phycocyanin operon reveal multiple evolutionary lines and reflect phycobilin content.

Robertson¹,

Tezuka²,

Watanabe³

2001

International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology

171

149

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The genus Synechococcus (cyanobacteria), while containing morphologically similar isolates, is polyphyletic and organisms presently classified as such require reclassification into several independent genera. Studies based on analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences have shown that members of the genus Synechococcus are affiliated to three of seven deeply branching cyanobacterial lineages. In addition, some strains do not appear to be associated with any of these lineages and may represent novel clades. In this report, a cyanobacterial phylogeny based on 16S rDNA sequences, including 14 newly sequenced Synechococcus isolates, is presented. One newly sequenced Synechococcus strain (PCC 7902) did not have any close relatives amongst cyanobacterial isolates currently contained in 16S rDNA sequence databases and was only loosely affiliated to a cyanobacterial lineage in which no other Synechococcus strains were found. Three hot-spring Synechococcus isolates, including two that were newly sequenced in this study (PCC 6716 and PCC 6717), formed an additional cyanobacterial lineage. These results indicated that Synechococcus species are affiliated to five of eight deeply branching cyanobacterial lineages. Part of the phycocyanin (PC) gene sequence (cpc), including the intergenic spacer (IGS) between cpcB and cpcA and the corresponding flanking regions (cpcBA-IGS), was used to investigate relationships between closely related Synechococcus isolates. Previously described PCR primers did not amplify this region from the majority of strains under investigation, so a new set of primers was designed that allowed amplification and sequencing of the cpcBA-IGS and flanking regions from 38 Synechococcus species. Phylogenetic analysis of this region was largely consistent with that obtained from 16S rDNA sequence analysis and revealed a relationship between the primary PC DNA sequence and the phycobilin content of cells.

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Widespread occurrence of a unicellular, marine, planktonic, cyanobacterium

Cited by 811 publications

References 7 publications

The distribution and abundance of phototrophic ultraplankton in the North Atlantic1,2

The distribution and abundance of phototrophic ultraplankton in the North Atlantic1,2

Basin-scale variability of phytoplankton biomass, production and growth in the Atlantic Ocean

Phylogenetic analyses of Synechococcus strains (cyanobacteria) using sequences of 16S rDNA and part of the phycocyanin operon reveal multiple evolutionary lines and reflect phycobilin content.

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