Annual phytoplankton dynamics in coastal waters from Fildes Bay, Western Antarctic Peninsula

• Published in: Scientific Reports
• Main Authors: Trefault, Nicole, De la Iglesia, Rodrigo, Moreno-Pino, Mario, Lopes dos Santos, Adriana, Gérikas Ribeiro, Catherine, Parada-Pozo, Génesis, Cristi, Antonia, Marie, Dominique, Vaulot, Daniel
• Other Authors: Asian School of the Environment
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: Engineering::Environmental engineering; Biogeography; Biooceanography; Arctic; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Fildes; Moe; Inach; Antarc*; Phytoplankton
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/146646; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-80568-8

Year-round reports of phytoplankton dynamics in the West Antarctic Peninsula are rare and mainly limited to microscopy and/or pigment-based studies. We analyzed the phytoplankton community from coastal waters of Fildes Bay in the West Antarctic Peninsula between January 2014 and 2015 using metabarcoding of the nuclear and plastidial 18/16S rRNA gene from both size-fractionated and flow cytometry sorted samples. Overall 14 classes of photosynthetic eukaryotes were present in our samples with the following dominating: Bacillariophyta (diatoms), Pelagophyceae and Dictyochophyceae for division Ochrophyta, Mamiellophyceae and Pyramimonadophyceae for division Chlorophyta, Haptophyta and Cryptophyta. Each metabarcoding approach yielded a different image of the phytoplankton community with for example Prymnesiophyceae more prevalent in plastidial metabarcodes and Mamiellophyceae in nuclear ones. Diatoms were dominant in the larger size fractions and during summer, while Prymnesiophyceae and Cryptophyceae were dominant in colder seasons. Pelagophyceae were particularly abundant towards the end of autumn (May). In addition of Micromonas polaris and Micromonas sp. clade B3, both previously reported in Arctic waters, we detected a new Micromonas 18S rRNA sequence signature, close to, but clearly distinct from M. polaris, which potentially represents a new clade specific of the Antarctic. These results highlight the need for complementary strategies as well as the importance of year-round monitoring for a comprehensive description of phytoplankton communities in Antarctic coastal waters. Ministry of Education (MOE) Published version This work was funded by INACH RG_31-15, INACH RT_34-17 and FONDECYT No. 1190879 grants. Collaboration between Chile and France was funded through ECOS-CONICYT No. C16B02 and CNRS International Research Network “Diversity, Evolution and Biotechnology of Marine Algae” (GDRI No. 0803). Catherine Géri-kas Ribeiro was supported by the FONDECYT Project No. 3190827. The authors thank Dr. Ernesto ...