Small Phytoplankton Community Composition Cycles Annually With a Coastal Bloom.

ABSTRACT: Small photosynthetic eukaryotes are a productive and dynamic component of marine planktonic communities. Here, we investigate how seasonal changes in the abundance of these primary producers relate to changes in their community composition at a coastal site on the Northeast US Shelf. We present a 9-year time series of 18S rRNA sequencing data and identify gradual transitions within the pico- and nanoplankton community that occur repeatedly over the annual cycle. We compare these compositional changes to concurrent high-resolution in situ flow cytometry measurements of eukaryotic phytoplankton abundance and division rate. We find that the Chlorophyta contribute a large proportion of the sequences in our samples and drive much of the seasonal variability within the small phytoplankton commun

SUBMITTER: Stevens BLF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12589932 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature