Trichodesmium sp. clade distributions in the western North Atlantic Ocean
To better understand the factors determining Trichodesmium clade (Clade III vs. Clade I) distribution, a quantitative polymerase chain reaction method was developed and applied to a sample set from the western North Atlantic. Clade distributions were compared with a suite of physicochemical paramete...
| Published in: | Limnology and Oceanography |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Wiley
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.4319/lo.2014.59.6.1899 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.4319%2Flo.2014.59.6.1899 https://aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.4319/lo.2014.59.6.1899 |
| Summary: | To better understand the factors determining Trichodesmium clade (Clade III vs. Clade I) distribution, a quantitative polymerase chain reaction method was developed and applied to a sample set from the western North Atlantic. Clade distributions were compared with a suite of physicochemical parameters on a cruise transect from Woods Hole, Massachusetts, to Barbados during the spring of 2011. Clade I comprised > 90% of the total Trichodesmium spp. population. Depth distributions of both clades were similar in waters where there was a shallow (< 20 m) mixed‐layer depth (MLD), but segregated in the water column where the MLD was deep (> 80 m). Surface abundances of both clades were higher when the MLD was < 20 m. Temperature and salinity were correlated with both clades in the data set as a whole. However, when stations influenced by a freshwater salinity anomaly were removed, dissolved inorganic phosphorus and total dissolved phosphorus correlated with Clade I cell density only. These correlations underscore the influence of phosphorus in driving Trichodesmium sp. dynamics in this region and are suggestive of niche partitioning between the two clades. |
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