Revealing the variety in phytoplankton communities in waters near the Antarctic Peninsula by high-throughput sequencing

ABSTRACT

The waters near the Antarctic Peninsula have always been a hot spot because of their variable and unique oceanographic conditions. To distinguish the differences in phytoplankton communities, we conducted a mesoscale survey during the austral summer of 2018. Samples were collected at 14 stations located in the Drake Passage, South Shetland Islands (SSI) and South Orkney Islands (SOI). A total of 615 operational taxonomic units were extrapolated using V4-5 18S rDNA sequencing collected from the chl a_max layers. Three groups (I, II, and III) were divided at a similarity level of 60% by multivariate statistical analysis, and there were significant differences between groups II and III. Generally, diatoms and dinoflagellates predominated among all three groups. Chlorophyta was found in greater abundance near the SSI, whereas pennate diatoms contributed more around the SOI. The different abundance of particular dinoflagellates was the reason for grouping by SIMPER analysis. And Pseudochattonella farcimen, Micromonas sp. and Pyramimonas sp were screened out which inducing dissimilarity were less mentioned in other literatures. Temperature and salinity among stations showed little difference in our study. Phytoplankton assemblage was a complex issue and the factors induced the difference of phytoplankton communities need to further analyze.

KEYWORDS:

• Antarctic Peninsula
• Chl a
• phytoplankton community
• 18S rDNA
• multivariate statistical analysis

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the 34th Chinese National Antarctic Research Exploration with Xiangyanghong 01 scientific expedition vessel (JDKC0518013), the foundation of China Ocean Mineral Resources R & D Association under Grant [DY135-E2-4-04, DY135-E2-4-06], the Central Public-interest Scientific Institution Basal Research Fund, Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute Research Fees under Grant [20603022022013]; Qingdao Postdoctoral Applied Research Project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by China Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association: [Grant Number]; National Natural Science Foundation of China: [Grant Number]; Yellow Sea Fishery Research Institute Research Fees: [Grant Number].