Unicellular eukaryotic community response to temperature and salinity variation in mesocosm experiments.

Stefanidou, Natassa, Genitsaris, Savvas, Lopez-Bautista, Juan, Sommer, Ulrich and Moustaka-Gouni, Maria (2018) Unicellular eukaryotic community response to temperature and salinity variation in mesocosm experiments. Open Access Frontiers in Microbiology, 9 . Art.Nr. 2444. DOI 10.3389/fmicb.2018.02444.

[thumbnail of fmicb-09-02444.pdf]
Preview
Text
fmicb-09-02444.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0.

Download (3MB) | Preview
[thumbnail of Data Sheet]
Preview
Other (Data Sheet)
Data_Sheet_1_Unicellular Eukaryotic Community Response to Temperature and Salinity Variation in Mesocosm Experiments.PDF - Supplemental Material
Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0.

Download (2MB) | Preview

Supplementary data:

Abstract

Climate change has profound impacts on marine biodiversity and biodiversity changes in turn might affect the community sensitivity to impacts of abiotic changes. We used mesocosm experiments and Next Generation Sequencing to study the response of the natural Baltic and Mediterranean unicellular eukaryotic plankton communities (control and +6oC heat shock) to subsequent salinity changes (-5 psu, +5 psu). The impact on Operational Taxonomic Unit (OTU) richness, taxonomic and functional composition and rRNA:rDNA ratios were examined. Our results showed that heat shock leads to lower OTU richness (21% fewer OTUs in the Baltic and 14% fewer in the Mediterranean) and a shift in composition towards pico- and nanophytoplankton and heterotrophic related OTUs. Heat shock also leads to increased rRNA:rDNA ratios for pico- and micrograzers. Less than 18% of shared OTUs were found among the different salinities indicating the crucial role of salinity in shaping communities. The response of rRNA:rDNA ratios varied highly after salinity changes. In both experiments the diversity decrease brought about by heat shock influenced the sensitivity to salinity changes. The heat shock either decreased or increased the sensitivity of the remaining community, depending on whether it removed the more salinity-sensitive or the salinity-tolerant taxa.

Document Type: Article
Keywords: coastal marine plankton, Climate Change, Illumina sequencing, 18S rRNA gene, cDNA, RNA/DNA ratio
Research affiliation: OceanRep > GEOMAR > FB3 Marine Ecology > FB3-EOE-N Experimental Ecology - Food Webs
Refereed: Yes
Open Access Journal?: Yes
Publisher: Frontiers
Date Deposited: 05 Oct 2018 09:10
Last Modified: 09 Mar 2021 13:24
URI: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/44421

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item