Microbial eukaryote community structure during early phytoplankton blooms in the naturally iron-fertilized Kerguelen area (Southern Ocean) Targeted Locus (Loci)

Sampling

The KEOPS2 cruise sampling strategy covered spatially diverse Fe-fertilized stations at early bloom stages in the Kerguelen plateau and ocean region (Oct-Nov 2011). KEOPS2 data showed that natural iron fertilization of the Southern Ocean at the scale of hundreds of thousands km2 produced a mosaic of blooms, and that the biological and biogeochemical response to fertilization was diverse. The objective of this study was to explore the microbial eukaryotic community structure using 18S rRNA gene tag pyrosequencing during the onset of spring phytoplankton blooms in the context of natural Fe fertilization of the Southern Ocean. The hypothesis tested was that the protistan communities would differ between the Fe-fertilised blooms and the HNLC waters and also between the blooms. The use of pyrotags provided a unifying approach for assessing the breadth of protistan communities including the groups that are quasi impossible to characterize using traditional approaches of microscopy and culture (e.g MAST, MALV, Fungi..).

Method steps

1. Pipeline used: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/metagenomics/pipelines/4.1