Patterns of microbial community biomass, composition and HPLC diagnostic pigments in the Costa Rica upwelling dome

Abstract

We investigated biomass, size-structure, composition, depth distributions and spatial variability of the phytoplankton community in the Costa Rica Dome (CRD) in June-July 2010. Euphotic zone profiles were sampled daily during Lagrangian experiments in and out of the dome region, and the community was analyzed using a combination of digital epifluorescence microscopy, flow cytometry and HPLC pigments. The mean depth-integrated biomass of phytoplankton ranged 2-fold, from 1089 to 1858 mg C m-2 (mean ± SE = 1378 ± 112 mg C m-2), among 4 water parcels tracked for 4 days. Corresponding mean (±SE) integrated values for total chlorophyll a (Chl a) and the ratio of autotrophic carbon to Chl a were 24.1 ± 1.5 mg Chl a m-2 and 57.5 ± 3.4, respectively. Absolute and relative contributions of picophytoplankton (∼60%), Synechococcus (>33%) and Prochlorococcus (17%) to phytoplankton community biomass were highest in the central dome region, while >20 μm phytoplankton accounted for ≤10%, and diatoms <2%, of biomass in all areas. Nonetheless, autotrophic flagellates, dominated by dinoflagellates, exceeded biomass contributions of Synechococcus at all locations. Order-of-magnitude discrepancies in the relative contributions of diatoms (overestimated) and dinoflagellates (underestimated) based on diagnostic pigments relative to microscopy highlight potential significant biases associated with making community inferences from pigments.