Contrasting patterns in diversity and community assembly of bacterioplankton and three size fractions of protists in the South China Sea.

ABSTRACT: The microbial food web plays a critical role in marine ecosystems, composed of various cell sizes of microbial organisms. Here, high-throughput sequencing of the 16S and 18S rRNA genes was conducted to detect the community structure and distribution patterns of bacterioplankton (0.2 µm-2 µm) and three size fractions of protist communities, i.e., pico-protist (0.2 µm-2 µm), nano-protist (2 µm-20 µm), and micro-protist (20 µm-200 µm), in the euphotic zone of the South China Sea. The trophic mode compositions of protist communities varied significantly across three size fractions, characterized by a substantial prevalence of parasitic pico-protists (40% amplicon sequence variants) and a greater predominance of mixotrophic taxa within nano- and micro-protist communities. Furthermore, we detect

SUBMITTER: Zheng X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12285259 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature