Microbial diversity in a Pacific Ocean transect from the Arctic to Antarctic circles

Abstract

Microbial diversity in surface waters was examined along a ∼15 400 km transect of the Pacific Ocean from 70° N to 68° S latitude between late August and early November 2003. Comparative microbial diversity was determined using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis of PCR amplified 16S and 18S rDNA restriction digested with CfoI and MspI. Bacterial numbers and total chlorophyll were greatest at higher latitudes in both hemispheres, with a smaller peak in equatorial waters. Flow cytometry analysis indicated a strong peak in Prochlorococcus from approximately 30°N to 30°S. Richness at each station was relatively low, with ∼11 prokaryotic peaks per sample and ∼12 eukaryotic peaks per community. Overall, prokaryotic populations appeared more diverse, with 181 total terminal restriction fragments (T-RFs) generated, while eukaryotic populations produced a total of 135 T-RFs. Prokaryotic and eukaryotic similarity dendrograms revealed 4 distinct cluster groups relating to regions sub-Arctic/Arctic, temperate, tropical and sub-Antarctic/Antarctic. T-RFLP patterns suggest that microbial communities may be influenced by ambient water temperature, with mid-latitudinal and equatorial communities more similar in composition to each other than to cold water communities. Global distribution of prokaryotic communities revealed an average inter-group similarity of ∼52 %, while eukaryotic communities showed ∼51 % similarity, implying that Pacific planktonic communities appear to be fairly homogenous in composition. Several T-RFs were ubiquitously distributed and contributed significantly to each cluster group, while several T-RFs were observed to be endemic to particular oceanic regions. Within-group similarities of >70% were attributed to 12-14 T-RFs and 8-11 T-RFs in prokaryotic and eukaryotic profiles, respectively, suggesting that a small number of phylogenetic groups were responsible for each cluster group. © Inter-Research 2005.