Phytoplankton (Prochlorococcus, Synechococcus, and PEuks) determined by flow cytometry of samples collected on R/V Thomas G. Thompson and R/V Kilo Moana cruises TN277, KM1301, KM1312 in the Eastern North Pacific Ocean from 2012-2013 (POWOW project)

Website: https://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/3901
Data Type: Cruise Results
Version: 4
Version Date: 2014-09-10

Project
» Seasonal and decadal changes in temperature drive Prochlorococcus ecotype distribution patterns (POWOW)
ContributorsAffiliationRole
Johnson, Zackary I.Duke UniversityPrincipal Investigator
Rauch, ShannonWoods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI BCO-DMO)BCO-DMO Data Manager

Abstract
This dataset quantifies phytoplankton (Prochlorococcus, Synechococcus, and PEuks), determined by flow cytometry of samples collected on R/V Thomas G. Thompson and R/V Kilo Moana cruises TN277, KM1301, KM1312 in the Eastern North Pacific Ocean from 2012-2013.


Coverage

Spatial Extent: N:46.6888 E:-118.316 S:21.3428 W:-160.6166
Temporal Extent: 2012-03-01 - 2013-07-27

Dataset Description

Phytoplankton concentrations from POWOW1 (TN277), POWOW2 (KM1301), and POWOW3 (KM1312) cruises including Prochlorococcus, Synechococcus and pico-photosynthetic eukaryotes (PEuks) determined by flow cytometry.


Methods & Sampling

Phytoplankton were enumerated using a FACSCalibur flow cytometer (Becton Dickinson) and populations characterized as previously described (Johnson et al., 2010). Briefly, cells were excited with a 488 nm laser (15 mW Ar) and inelastic forward (<15°) scatter, inelastic side (90°) scatter (SSC), green (530 ± 30 nm) fluorescence, orange fluorescence (585 ± 42 nm), and red fluorescence (> 670 nm) emissions were measured. Populations were deemed ‘phytoplankton’ if they contained red-fluorescence, i.e. had a chlorophyll signal and were subsequently assigned to specific taxa (i.e. Prochlorococcus, Synechococcus or Pico-photosynthetic eukaryotes) based on previous classification schemes (Johnson et al., 2010).

References:
Johnson, Z.I., Shyam, R., Ritchie, A.E., Lin, Y., Mioni, C., Lance, V.P. et al. (2010) The effects of iron- and light-limitation on phytoplankton communities of deep chlorophyll maxima of the Western Pacific Ocean. Journal of Marine Research 68: 1-26. doi: 10.1357/002224010793721433


Data Processing Description

Cells counts were normalized to volume sampled to determined cells per mL.

BCO-DMO edits made:
- Parameter names have been changed to conform to BCO-DMO conventions.
- month_utc, day_utc, and year were added, based on the original date field.
- Original version of POWOW1 data (dated 25 March 2013) replaced with updated version 28 May 2013; POWOW2 added 14 May 2013.
- Replaced 'NaN' with 'nd' to indicate 'no data'.


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Data Files

File
phytoplankton.csv
(Comma Separated Values (.csv), 62.12 KB)
MD5:29f7c07c188d5a0486033cae374597b2
Primary data file for dataset ID 3901

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Related Publications

Johnson, Z. I., Shyam, R., Ritchie, A. E., Mioni, C., Lance, V. P., Murray, J. W., & Zinser, E. R. (2010). The effect of iron- and light-limitation on phytoplankton communities of deep chlorophyll maxima of the western Pacific Ocean. Journal of Marine Research, 68(2), 283–308. doi:10.1357/002224010793721433
Methods

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Parameters

ParameterDescriptionUnits
cruise_nameCruise identifier (POWOW1 = TN277 = R/V Thomas G. Thompson cruise 277; POWOW2 = KM1301 = R/V Kilo Moana cruise 1301). text
castCTD cast number. unitless
latLatitude in decimal degrees. Positive = North. decimal degrees
lonLongitude in decimal degrees. Positive = East. decimal degrees
month_utc2-digit month of year, UTC. mm (01 to 12)
day_utc2-digit day of month, UTC. dd (01 to 31)
year4-digit year. YYYY
depthSample depth. meters
botRosette position of the bottle. unitless
prochlorococcusConcentration of Prochlorococcus (cells/mL). cells per milliliter
synechococcusConcentration of Synechococcus (cells/mL). cells per milliliter
pico_euksConcentration of pico-photosynthetic eukaryotes, or PEuks (cells/mL). cells per milliliter
depth_wDepth of the water (bottom depth). meters
time_utcTime, in hours and minutes, UTC; 24-hour clock. HHMM


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Instruments

Dataset-specific Instrument Name
Flow Cytometer
Generic Instrument Name
Flow Cytometer
Dataset-specific Description
A FACSCalibur flow cytometer (Becton Dickinson) was used to enumerate phytoplankton.
Generic Instrument Description
Flow cytometers (FC or FCM) are automated instruments that quantitate properties of single cells, one cell at a time. They can measure cell size, cell granularity, the amounts of cell components such as total DNA, newly synthesized DNA, gene expression as the amount messenger RNA for a particular gene, amounts of specific surface receptors, amounts of intracellular proteins, or transient signalling events in living cells. (from: http://www.bio.umass.edu/micro/immunology/facs542/facswhat.htm)


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Deployments

TN277

Website
Platform
R/V Thomas G. Thompson
Report
Start Date
2012-02-29
End Date
2012-03-11
Description
The POWOW#1 cruise was a trip of opportunity to sample along temperature gradients and test out new protocols. The primary goal of this cruise was to measure the abundance, diversity and activity of Prochlorococcus and associated bacterial and viral communities across temperature (and other environmental) gradients to understand how climate change may impact ocean ecology and biogeochemistry. There are many additional scientific and broader impact goals including characterizing oxidative stress and investigating nitrogen uptake/utilization molecular diversity. Cruise information and original data are available from the NSF R2R data catalog.

KM1301

Website
Platform
R/V Kilo Moana
Report
Start Date
2013-01-10
End Date
2013-02-08
Description
From the cruise report: The POWOW#2 cruise was the second in a series of cruises to study the influence of temperature and other environmental variables on Prochlorococcus, its viruses and other members of the microbial community. The primary goal of this cruise was to measure the abundance, diversity and activity of Prochlorococcus and associated bacterial and viral communities across temperature (and other environmental) gradients to understand how climate change may impact ocean ecology and biogeochemistry. Cruise information and original data are available from the NSF R2R data catalog.

KM1312

Website
Platform
R/V Kilo Moana
Report
Start Date
2013-07-01
End Date
2013-07-28
Description
From the cruise report: The POWOW#3 cruise was the third in a series of cruises to study the influence of temperature and other environmental variables on Prochlorococcus, its viruses and other members of the microbial community in the Northern Pacific Ocean. The primary goal of this cruise was to measure the abundance, diversity and activity of Prochlorococcus and associated bacterial and viral communities across temperature (and other environmental) gradients to understand how climate change may impact ocean ecology and biogeochemistry. There are many additional scientific and broader impact goals including characterizing oxidative stress and investigating nitrogen uptake/utilization molecular diversity. The official title of the project is "Collaborative Research: Seasonal and decadal changes in temperature drive Prochlorococcus ecotype distribution patterns" and it is part of NSF #1031064 (Duke) and 1030518 (UTK). Cruise information and original data are available from the NSF R2R data catalog.


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Project Information

Seasonal and decadal changes in temperature drive Prochlorococcus ecotype distribution patterns (POWOW)


Coverage: Eastern North Pacific Ocean


Project also known as 'Prochlorococcus Of Warming Ocean Waters' (POWOW).

The two numerically-dominant ecotypes of the marine cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus partition the surface ocean niche latitudinally, with ecotype eMIT9312 dominant in the 30 degree N to 30 degree S region and eMED4 dominant at higher latitudes. These ecotypes may account for 25-50% of primary production in open ocean ecosystems, but this percentage is dependent on which ecotype dominates. The relative abundance of the two ecotypes follows a log-linear relationship with temperature, with the transition from eMIT9312 to eMED4 occurring at approx. 18 degrees C. From these descriptive data, it has been hypothesized that temperature is the primary driver of relative abundance. Their contribution to net primary production, however, appears to be independent of temperature, suggesting temperature regulates ecotype dominance through photosynthesis-independent mechanisms.

To test these hypotheses, the PIs are undertaking a series of field and lab studies to investigate the effect of temperature change on the distribution of these ecotypes. Two cruises in the North Pacific will trace the transitions from eMIT9312- to eMED4-dominated regions, with one cruise during the winter and the other during summer. They have hypothesized that the ratio of ecotype abundance will move latitudinally with the seasonal shift in temperature gradient: migration of the 18 degrees C isotherm northward in the summer will be matched by a similar migration of the 1:1 ecotype transition point. Multiple crossings of the 18 degrees C isotherm are proposed, and the summer cruise will also follow the isotherm to the Western US coast to gain insight on physical and geochemical influences. Environmental variables such as nutrient concentrations, light/mixing depths, and virus /grazing based mortality, which may impinge on the relationship between temperature and ecotype ratio, will be assessed through a series of multivariate analyses of the collected suite of physical, chemical and biological data. Seasonal comparisons will be complemented with on-deck incubations and lab competition assays (using existing and new isolates) that will establish, for the first time, how fitness coefficients of these ecotypes relate to temperature. As latitudinal shifts in temperature gradient and migration of ecotypes during seasonal warming likely share common features with high latitude warming as a consequence of climate change, the investigator's analyses will contribute important biological parameters (e.g., abundances, production rates, temperature change coefficients) for modeling biological and biogeochemical responses to climate change. This research will be integrated with that of committed collaborators, generating data sufficient for ecosystem-scale characterizations of the contributions of temperature (relative to other forcing factors) in constraining the range and seasonal migration of these numerically dominant marine phototrophs.

Publications produced as result of this research:
Rowe, J.M., DeBruyn, J.M., Poorvin, L., LeCleir, G.R., Johnson, Z.I., Zinser, E.R., and Wilhelm, S.W. 2012. Viral and bacterial abundance and production in the Western Pacific Ocean and the relation to other oceanic realms. FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 72, p. 359. DOI: 10.1111/j.1574-6941.2011.01223.x

Morris, J.J., Lenski, R.E. and E.R. Zinser. 2012. The Black Queen Hypothesis: Evolution of Dependencies through Adaptive Gene Loss. mBio, 3, p. e00036-12. DOI: 10.1128/mBio.00036-12

Morris, J.J., Johnson, Z.I., Szul, M.J., Keller, M., and Zinser, E.R. 2011. Dependence of the cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus on hydrogen peroxide scavenging microbes for growth at the ocean's surface. PLoS One, 6(2), p. 16805. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0016805

Ringuet, S., Sassano, L., and Johnson, Z.I. 2011. A suite of microplate reader-based colorimetric methods to quantify ammonium, nitrate, orthophosphate and silicate concentrations for aquatic nutrient monitoring. Journal of Environmental Monitoring. DOI:10.1039/C0EM00290A

Ritchie, A.E. and Johnson, Z.I. 2012. Abundance and genetic diversity of aerobic anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria of coastal regions of the Pacific Ocean. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 78, p. 2858. DOI: 10.1128/AEM.06268-11



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Funding

Funding SourceAward
NSF Division of Ocean Sciences (NSF OCE)

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