An 18S V4 rRNA metabarcoding dataset of protist diversity in the Atlantic inflow to the Arctic Ocean, through the year and down to 1000 m depth

• Published in: Earth System Science Data
• Main Authors: Egge, Elianne, Elferink, Stephanie, Vaulot, Daniel, John, Uwe, Bratbak, Gunnar, Larsen, Aud, Edvardsen, Bente
• Other Authors: University of Oslo (UiO), Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung = Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research = Institut Alfred-Wegener pour la recherche polaire et marine (AWI), Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft = Helmholtz Association, Adaptation et diversité en milieu marin (ADMM), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Station biologique de Roscoff = Roscoff Marine Station (SBR), Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), University of Bergen (UiB), Norwegian Research Center (NORCE)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2021
• Subjects: [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; [SDV.MP.PRO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Microbiology and Parasitology/Protistology; [SDV.GEN.GPO]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Genetics/Populations and Evolution [q-bio.PE]; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Svalbard; Svalbard Archipelago; Spitsbergen
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-03784323; https://hal.science/hal-03784323/document; https://hal.science/hal-03784323/file/Egge_2021_ESSD.pdf; https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4913-2021

International audience Arctic marine protist communities have been understudied due to challenging sampling conditions, in particular during winter and in deep waters. The aim of this study was to improve our knowledge on Arctic protist diversity through the year, in both the epipelagic (< 200 m depth) and mesopelagic zones (200–1000 m depth). Sampling campaigns were performed in 2014, during five different months, to capture the various phases of the Arctic primary production: January (winter), March (pre-bloom), May (spring bloom), August (post-bloom), and November (early winter). The cruises were undertaken west and north of the Svalbard archipelago, where warmer Atlantic waters from the West Spitsbergen Current meet cold Arctic waters from the Arctic Ocean. From each cruise, station, and depth, 50 L of seawater was collected, and the plankton was size-fractionated by serial filtration into four size fractions between 0.45–200 µm, representing picoplankton (0.45–3 µm), small and large nanoplankton (3–10 and 10–50 µm, respectively), and microplankton (50–200 µm). In addition, vertical net hauls were taken from 50 m depth to the surface at selected stations. The net hauls were fractionated into the large nanoplankton (10–50 µm) and microplankton (50–200 µm) fractions. From the plankton samples DNA was extracted, the V4 region of the 18S rRNA-gene was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with universal eukaryote primers, and the amplicons were sequenced by Illumina high-throughput sequencing. Sequences were clustered into amplicon sequence variants (ASVs), representing protist genotypes, with the dada2 pipeline. Taxonomic classification was made against the curated Protist Ribosomal Reference database (PR2). Altogether, 6536 protist ASVs were obtained (including 54 fungal ASVs). Both ASV richness and taxonomic composition varied between size fractions, seasons, and depths. ASV richness was generally higher in the smaller fractions and higher in winter and the mesopelagic samples than in samples from ...