Annual Partitioning Patterns of Labyrinthulomycetes Protists Reveal Their Multifaceted Role in Marine Microbial Food Webs.

ABSTRACT: Heterotrophic microbes play a key role in remineralizing organic material in the coastal ocean. While there is a significant body of literature examining heterotrophic bacterioplankton and phytoplankton communities, much less is known about the diversity, dynamics, and ecology of eukaryotic heterotrophs. Here, we focus on the Labyrinthulomycetes, a fungus-like protistan group whose biomass can exceed that of the bacterioplankton in coastal waters. We examined their diversity and community structure in a weekly temperate coastal ocean time series. Their seasonal community patterns were related to temperature, insolation, dissolved inorganic carbon, fungal abundance, ammonia, chlorophyll a, pH, and other environmental variables. Similar to the bacterioplankton, annual community patter

SUBMITTER: Xie N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7783336 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature