Microbial components

Abstract

This chapter presents an overview of the diversity, distribution and ecology of major groups of microbial plankton in the Mediterranean Sea, including phytoplankton, viruses, heterotrophic prokaryotes and flagellates, and ciliates. Some protists with hard structures like diatoms, thecate dinoflagellates, coccolithophorids and tintinnids have been relatively well studied from a morphological point of view, but in general microbial diversity is poorly known, in particular with respect to prokaryotes and the smallest eukaryotes. This situation is rapidly changing, in a large part due to the incorporation of molecular techniques. The general oligotrophy of the Mediterranean, which increases from west to east, is reflected in a strong contribution of the picoplankton and the microbial food web. However, a variety of nutrient-enrichment mechanisms, including winter mixing, mesoscale hydrographic structures and land runoff, which operate at various spatio-temporal scales, may enhance primary production and result in the intermittent dominance of diatoms and the herbivorous food web. During the stratification period, a deep chlorophyll maximum is a general feature throughout the basin and plays a substantial role in the fertility of the Mediterranean.