Spatio-Temporal Variations in Community Size Structure of Arctic Protist Plankton in the Fram Strait
The Arctic Ocean is subject to severe environmental changes, including the massive decline in sea ice due to continuous warming in many regions. Along with these changes, the Arctic Ocean's ecosystem is affected on various scales. The pelagic microbial food web of the Arctic is of particular in...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:0c7cdab2da614575849e40eed7ffce59 2023-05-15T14:43:19+02:00 Spatio-Temporal Variations in Community Size Structure of Arctic Protist Plankton in the Fram Strait Vanessa Lampe Eva-Maria Nöthig Markus Schartau 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.579880 https://doaj.org/article/0c7cdab2da614575849e40eed7ffce59 EN eng Frontiers Media S.A. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2020.579880/full https://doaj.org/toc/2296-7745 2296-7745 doi:10.3389/fmars.2020.579880 https://doaj.org/article/0c7cdab2da614575849e40eed7ffce59 Frontiers in Marine Science, Vol 7 (2021) Arctic Ocean protist plankton plankton community structure plankton size kernel density estimates size selective grazing Science Q General. Including nature conservation geographical distribution QH1-199.5 article 2021 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.579880 2022-12-31T12:04:05Z The Arctic Ocean is subject to severe environmental changes, including the massive decline in sea ice due to continuous warming in many regions. Along with these changes, the Arctic Ocean's ecosystem is affected on various scales. The pelagic microbial food web of the Arctic is of particular interest, because it determines mass transfer to higher trophic levels. In this regard, variations in the size structure of the microbial community reflect changes in size-dependent bottom-up and top-down processes. Here we present analyses of microscopic data that resolve details on composition and cell size of unicellular plankton, based on samples collected between 2016 and 2018 in the Fram Strait. Using the Kernel Density Estimation method, we derived continuous size spectra (from 1 μm to ≈ 200 μm Equivalent Spherical Diameter, ESD) of cell abundance and biovolume. Specific size intervals (3–4, 8–10, 25–40, and 70–100 μm ESD) indicate size-selective predation as well as omnivory. In-between size ranges include loopholes with elevated cell abundance. By considering remote sensing data we could discriminate between polar Arctic- and Atlantic water within the Fram Strait and could relate our size spectra to the seasonal change in chlorophyll-a concentration. Our size spectra disclose the decline in total biovolume from summer to autumn. In October the phytoplankton biovolume size-spectra reveal a clear relative shift toward larger cell sizes (> 30 μm). Our analysis highlights details in size spectra that may help refining allometric relationships and predator-prey dependencies for size-based plankton ecosystem model applications. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Ocean Fram Strait Phytoplankton Sea ice Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Arctic Ocean Frontiers in Marine Science 7 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Arctic Ocean protist plankton plankton community structure plankton size kernel density estimates size selective grazing Science Q General. Including nature conservation geographical distribution QH1-199.5 |
spellingShingle |
Arctic Ocean protist plankton plankton community structure plankton size kernel density estimates size selective grazing Science Q General. Including nature conservation geographical distribution QH1-199.5 Vanessa Lampe Eva-Maria Nöthig Markus Schartau Spatio-Temporal Variations in Community Size Structure of Arctic Protist Plankton in the Fram Strait |
topic_facet |
Arctic Ocean protist plankton plankton community structure plankton size kernel density estimates size selective grazing Science Q General. Including nature conservation geographical distribution QH1-199.5 |
description |
The Arctic Ocean is subject to severe environmental changes, including the massive decline in sea ice due to continuous warming in many regions. Along with these changes, the Arctic Ocean's ecosystem is affected on various scales. The pelagic microbial food web of the Arctic is of particular interest, because it determines mass transfer to higher trophic levels. In this regard, variations in the size structure of the microbial community reflect changes in size-dependent bottom-up and top-down processes. Here we present analyses of microscopic data that resolve details on composition and cell size of unicellular plankton, based on samples collected between 2016 and 2018 in the Fram Strait. Using the Kernel Density Estimation method, we derived continuous size spectra (from 1 μm to ≈ 200 μm Equivalent Spherical Diameter, ESD) of cell abundance and biovolume. Specific size intervals (3–4, 8–10, 25–40, and 70–100 μm ESD) indicate size-selective predation as well as omnivory. In-between size ranges include loopholes with elevated cell abundance. By considering remote sensing data we could discriminate between polar Arctic- and Atlantic water within the Fram Strait and could relate our size spectra to the seasonal change in chlorophyll-a concentration. Our size spectra disclose the decline in total biovolume from summer to autumn. In October the phytoplankton biovolume size-spectra reveal a clear relative shift toward larger cell sizes (> 30 μm). Our analysis highlights details in size spectra that may help refining allometric relationships and predator-prey dependencies for size-based plankton ecosystem model applications. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Vanessa Lampe Eva-Maria Nöthig Markus Schartau |
author_facet |
Vanessa Lampe Eva-Maria Nöthig Markus Schartau |
author_sort |
Vanessa Lampe |
title |
Spatio-Temporal Variations in Community Size Structure of Arctic Protist Plankton in the Fram Strait |
title_short |
Spatio-Temporal Variations in Community Size Structure of Arctic Protist Plankton in the Fram Strait |
title_full |
Spatio-Temporal Variations in Community Size Structure of Arctic Protist Plankton in the Fram Strait |
title_fullStr |
Spatio-Temporal Variations in Community Size Structure of Arctic Protist Plankton in the Fram Strait |
title_full_unstemmed |
Spatio-Temporal Variations in Community Size Structure of Arctic Protist Plankton in the Fram Strait |
title_sort |
spatio-temporal variations in community size structure of arctic protist plankton in the fram strait |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.579880 https://doaj.org/article/0c7cdab2da614575849e40eed7ffce59 |
geographic |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Fram Strait Phytoplankton Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Fram Strait Phytoplankton Sea ice |
op_source |
Frontiers in Marine Science, Vol 7 (2021) |
op_relation |
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2020.579880/full https://doaj.org/toc/2296-7745 2296-7745 doi:10.3389/fmars.2020.579880 https://doaj.org/article/0c7cdab2da614575849e40eed7ffce59 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.579880 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Marine Science |
container_volume |
7 |
_version_ |
1766314998055829504 |