Application of chemotaxonomy to the study of the phytoplankton community structure in the Mediterranean Sea and in the Atlantic and Southern Oceans

• Main Author: Nunes, Sdena
• Other Authors: Estrada, Marta, Latasa, Mikel
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: unknown
• Published: Universidad de Barcelona 2018
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarctic Ocean; Pillar; Nunes; Estrada; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/182092

Memoria de tesis doctoral presentada por Sdena Oliveira Nunes para obtener el título de Doctora en Ciencias del Mar por la Universitat de Barcelona (UB), realizada bajo la dirección de la Dra. Marta Estrada i Miyares del Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC) y del Dr. Mikel Latasa Arcalís.-- 287 pages [EN] Despite their small size, phytoplankton represents up to 50% ofthe global primary production of the Earthand serves as a connector between oceanic and atmospheric processes. Therefore, phytoplankton constitutes a central pillar in the comprehension of the cycles of mass and energy in the oceans. Their different attributes like size, abundance, community composition, functions, pigment complex and taxonomy provide relevant information to understand the processes of global change. In the past decades, the use of HPLC chromatography (High-Performance Liquid Chromatography) has proven as a very effective methodology to study marine phytoplankton. This technique, combined with the use of the statistic program CHEMTAX, allows to identify efficiently the contribution of certain taxonomic classes. This thesis is centered around the use of HPLC-CHEMTAX to identify the phytoplanktonic communities of three regions: the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean and the Antarctic Ocean, each characterized by different trophic conditions (from oligotrophic to eutrophic). With the results obtained, we expect to contribute to the comprehension of the local biochemical responses in a context of global change, as well as to improve future models of ecosystems and algorithms for remote sensing. To validate the data obtained, the results originated from the HPLC-CHEMOTAX were compared to other techniques used for identification and quantification, such as microscopy, flow cytometry and bio-optics. First, we focused on a temporal series (14 years) where we analyzed the seasonal and inter-annual dynamics of the phytoplanktonic community. We have verified that the phytoplanktonic community follows a seasonal pattern, just as had ...