Responses of phytoplankton and its satellite bacteria to exogenous ethanol

The response of phytoplankton and its satellite bacteria to various concentrations(0.01%-10%v/v)of ethanol is studied.To elucidate the effect of ethanol,single-strains of phytoplankton(SSP)culture,pure strains of satellite bacteria isolated from nonaxenic SSP cultures,and Escherichia coli were screened.Results indicate that ethanol could promote the growth and photo synthetic efficiency(F_(v)/F_(m))of S SP at 0.01%and the growth of satellite bacteria at 0.01%-1%.Nevertheless,ethanol inhibited the growth and F_(v)/F_(m)of SSP at 0.1%-1%,and killed bacteria and SSP at 10% concentration.Further investigation on a satellite bacterium(Mameliella alba)revealed that ethanol promotes growth by serving as a growth stimulant rather than a metabolic carbon source.The 16 S rRNA gene amplicon indicated that all nonaxenic S SP cultures harbor distinct satellite bacteria communities where the SSP culture of Skeletonema costatum,Phaeodactylum tricornutum,and Dunaliella bardawil were dominated by bacteria genera of Marivita(~80%),Dinoroseobacter(~47%),and Halomonas(~87%),respectively,indicating that every SSP cultures have their own distinct satellite bacterial community.The bacteria family Rhodobacteraceae was dominant in the two marine diatoms,whereas Halomonadaceae was dominant in the saline green microalga.Compared to their respective controls,the supply of 0.5% ethanol to SSP cultures promoted the growth of the satellite bacteria but did not cause a significant difference in species composition of satellite bacteria.Therefore,a low concentration of ethanol can promote the growth of bacteria in a non-selective way.This study enriched our knowledge about the effect of ethanol on aquatic microbes and provided a baseline for basic and applied biotechnological re search in the aquatic environment in the future.

Physically modulated phytoplankton production and export at submesoscales in the oligotrophic South China Sea Basin

Oceanic submesoscales can significantly influence phytoplankton production and export owing to their similar timescales of days.Based on two-year Biogeochemical Argo(BGC-Argo) observations,this study investigated the development of submesoscale instabilities,particularly symmetric and mixed-layer baroclinic instabilities,and their impacts on biological production and export in the oligotrophic South China Sea basin.In the northern basin,near-surface winter blooms consistently cooccurred with seasonally deepened mixed layers.However,significantly stronger and weaker winter blooms were observed over two consecutive winters within the BGC-Argo observation period.During the first winter,symmetric-instability-induced upward nutrient entrainment played a crucial role in initiating the strong winter bloom in early December,when the mixed layer was approximately 20–30 m shallower than the nutricline.This bloom occurred approximately 20–30 days earlier than that anticipated owing to the contact between the seasonally deepened mixed layer and mesoscale-cyclone-induced uplifted nutricline.The symmetric instability also facilitated the export of fixed phytoplankton carbon from the surface to deeper layers.Conversely,during the second winter,remarkably intense mixed-layer baroclinic instability associated with an intense mesoscale anticyclone led to more significant shoaling of the mixed layer compared to the nutricline,thus increasing the vertical distance between the two layers.Under this condition,upward nutrient injection,phytoplankton bloom,and carbon export were suppressed.In contrast,the BGC-Argo float in the central basin revealed significantly inhibited seasonality of phytoplankton biomass and submesoscale instabilities compared to those in the northern basin,primarily owing to the significantly shallower winter mixed layer.

Diversity,community structure,and quantity of eukaryotic phytoplankton revealed using 18S rRNA and plastid 16S rRNA genes and pigment markers:a case study of the Pearl River Estuary

Understanding consistencies and discrepancies in characterizing diversity and quantity of phytoplankton is essential for better modeling ecosystem change.In this study,eukaryotic phytoplankton in the Pearl River Estuary,South China Sea were investigated using nuclear 18S rRNA and plastid 16S or 23S rRNA genes and pigment analysis.It was found that 18S abundance poorly explained the variations in total chlorophyll a(Chl-a).However,the ratios of log-transformed 18S abundance to Chl-a in the major phytoplankton groups were generally environment dependent,suggesting that the ratio has potential as an indicator of the physiological state of phytoplankton.The richness of 18S-based operational taxonomic units was positively correlated with the richness of 16S-based amplicon sequence variants of the whole phytoplankton community,but insignifcant or weak for individual phytoplankton groups.Overall,the 18S based,rather than the 16S based,community structure had a greater similarity to pigment-based estimations.Relative to the pigment data,the proportion of haptophytes in the 18S dataset,and diatoms and cryptophytes in the 16S dataset,were underestimated.This study highlights that 18S metabarcoding tends to refect biomass-based community organization of eukaryotic phytoplankton.Because there were lower copy numbers of plastid 16S than 18S per genome,metabarcoding of 16S probably approximates cell abundance-based community organization.Changes in biomass organization of the pigment-based community were sensitive to environmental changes.Taken together,multiple methodologies are recommended to be applied to more accurately profle the diversity and community composition of phytoplankton in natural ecosystems.