Investigating the microbial ecology of coastal hotspots of marine nitrogen fixation in the western North Atlantic ...

• Main Authors: Whitby, H., Tang, W., Planquette, H., Gifford, S., Wang, S., Eveillard, D., González, A.G., Delage, E., Cassar, N.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Research 2021
• Subjects: North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17615/t513-ks64; https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/concern/articles/8s45qk819

Variation in the microbial cycling of nutrients and carbon in the ocean is an emergent property of complex planktonic communities. While recent findings have considerably expanded our understanding of the diversity and distribution of nitrogen (N2) fixing marine diazotrophs, knowledge gaps remain regarding ecological interactions between diazotrophs and other community members. Using quantitative 16S and 18S V4 rDNA amplicon sequencing, we surveyed eukaryotic and prokaryotic microbial communities from samples collected in August 2016 and 2017 across the Western North Atlantic. Leveraging and significantly expanding an earlier published 2015 molecular dataset, we examined microbial community structure and ecological co-occurrence relationships associated with intense hotspots of N2 fixation previously reported at sites off the Southern New England Shelf and Mid-Atlantic Bight. Overall, we observed a negative relationship between eukaryotic diversity and both N2 fixation and net community production (NCP). ...