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We estimated the bacterial production and losses to predators along an open ocean trophic gradient from coastal upwelling waters to oligotrophic waters in the Subtropical Northern Atlantic Ocean. Two zonal sections (21 and 26°N) extending from the NW African shelf to the Open Atlantic Ocean at 26°W were sampled during September–October 2002 (autumn), and May–June 2003 (spring). The main goal was to elucidate whether the impacts of bacterial losses were more important in upwelling rather than in offshore waters. Whereas temperature and salinity decreased and nutrient concentrations increased from offshore to the coastal upwelling regions, phytoplankton, ciliate and bacterial biomass followed a similar trend increasing towards the upwelling zone. In addition, heterotrophic nanoflagellate biomass, bacterial production and grazing rates on bacteria did not follow this pattern, although the highest activities were recorded at upwelling stations. However, at the stations not affected by upwelling the average impact on bacteria expressed as a percentage of bacterial production consumed by predators in autumn and spring (values that varied between 70% ± 6% and 129% ± 15%, respectively) was significantly higher than at the upwelling stations (where it ranged between 49% ± 7% and 68% ± 5%, respectively). Our results suggest that in the upwelling areas bacteria escape from predators and growth cannot be balanced by grazing, while it is at the oligotrophic open ocean stations when, on occasions, grazing can overcome bacterial production. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Nitrogen fixation by the diazotrophic community in the subtropical NE Atlantic, including the Canary Current region, was investigated during two oceanographic cruises, RODA I (summer 2006) and RODA II (winter 2007). The first evaluated the role of the Canary eddy fields in the growth of nitrogen-fixing Trichodesmium and their rates of nitrogen fixation and of the unscreened whole diazotrophic community. The second cruise was designed to look at the variability of these processes in the subtropical NE Atlantic study area that is influenced by atmospheric transport of African aerosols. During RODA I, significantly higher mean nitrogen fixation rates of unscreened whole surface water (P < 0.05, t-test) were observed at oligotrophic far-field stations than in the nutrient-enriched eddies, but the pattern was not consistent with nitrogen fixation rates of >50 µm samples (Trichodesmium) integrated over depth. However, correlation analyses showed decreasing rates of nitrogen fixation rates of >50 µm samples (Trichodesmium) at stations with higher NH4+ concentrations, suggesting that combined N seemed to be an important regulator affecting nitrogen fixation rates. Temperature was also correlated with the abundance of Trichodesmium. Iron (from dust deposition), which has been reported in previous studies to stimulate N2 fixation, did not show any correlation with N2 fixation rates or with the abundance of Trichodesmium. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: The role of microorganisms in the transfer of carbon of marine systems is very important in open oligotrophic oceans. Here, we analyze the picoplankton structure, the heterotrophic bacterioplankton activity, and the predator–prey relationships between heterotrophic bacteria and nanoflagellates during two large scale cruises in the Central Atlantic Ocean (∼29°N to ∼40°S). Latitud cruises were performed in 1995 between March–April and October–November. During both cruises we crossed the regions of different trophic statuses; where we measured different biological variables both at the surface and at the deep chlorophyll maximum (DCM). The concentration of chlorophyll a varied between 0.1 and 0.8mgm−3, the abundance of heterotrophic bacteria varied between <1.0×105 and >1.0×106 cellsml−1, and that of heterotrophic nanoflagellates between <100 and >1.0×104 cellsml−1. The production of heterotrophic bacteria varied more than three orders of magnitude between <0.01 and 24μgCL−1 d−1; and the growth rates were in the range <0.01–2.1d−1. In the Latitud-II cruise, Prochlorococcus ranged between <103 and >3×105 cellsml−1, Synechococcus between <100 and >1.0×104 cellsml−1, and picoeukaryotes between <100 and >104 cellsml−1. Two empirical models were used to learn more about the relationship between heterotrophic bacteria and nanoflagellates. Most bacterial production was ingested when this production was low, the heterotrophic nanoflagellates could be controlled by preys during Latitud-I cruise at the DCM, and by predators in the surface and in the Latitud-II cruise. Our results were placed in context with others about the structure and function of auto- and heterotrophic picoplankton and heterotrophic nanoplankton in the Central Atlantic Ocean. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The trophic relation between prokaryotes and heterotrophic nanoflagellates was studied during two latitudinal cruises in the central Atlantic Ocean. The losses to predation on prokaryotes were determined in 12 locations covering a wide range of trophic situations, from ultraoligotrophic [<0.05 mg chlorophyll a (Chl a) m–3] to moderately eutrophic waters (>1 mg Chl a m–3). In these locations, the abundance of prokaryotes (P) covaries with that of heterotrophic nanoflagellates, thus suggesting that resources controlled the abundance of heterotrophic nanoflagellates (HNF). Besides, the losses to predation were positively related to prokaryotic and heterotrophic nanoflagellate biomass, which points toward higher consumption rates associated with larger concentrations of preys and predators. Conversely, declining trends between prokaryotic production (PP) and the fraction of this production lost to predation revealed higher relative losses in the environments with lower productions. Our study shows for the central Atlantic that 35% of prokaryotic biomass (BP), equating to between 40 and 83% of PP can be ingested daily and that 55% of the variability observed in the rate of prokaryotic loss to predation was related with the HNF. As predators graze on many prey types, in an oligotrophic system containing many prey species but little numeric loading, there will still be prey for predators but not enough hosts for viruses. In this sense, our study confirms the importance of the prey–predator relationship between prokaryotes and heterotrophic nanoflagellates in the flow of carbon of the less productive regions of the ocean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of oceanic eddies on microbial processes, with emphasis on bacterial losses due to protists and phages, was examined in the Canary Current region (subtropical northeast Atlantic) through the water column (down to 1000 m) during August 2006. Sampling stations were located in cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies, as well as in regions situated outside the influence of the eddy field (far-field stations). In the euphotic zone, in cyclonic eddies losses of bacteria due to viruses and protists were from 25.6% to 69.8%, and from not detected to 46.8% of bacterial production (BP) d-1, respectively. In anticyclonic eddies, these values ranged from 20.6% to 90.2% of BP d-1 for viruses, and from 8.0% to 79.4% of BP d-1 for protists. At far-field stations, losses of bacteria ranged from 48.7% to 66.9% for viruses, and from not detected to 44.8% for protists. In addition, covering all stations and depths (from the epipelagic to the bathypelagic layer), bacterial losses due to viruses were significantly higher than losses by protists, and did not differ significantly among depths except for the stations situated in anticyclonic eddies, where they were significantly higher in the epipelagic layer. Lysogenic infection was more frequent at anticyclonic stations, where the highest pressure of protists on bacteria was observed. Because of the importance of viral activity, we suggest that lysis products from bacteria may be a source of regenerated nutrients in the surface of the oligotrophic ocean, in addition to the input of nutrients upwelled by eddies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The relation between trophic regime and phytoplankton composition and function in oceanic systems is well accepted in oceanography. However, the relative dynamics and carbon cycling contributions of different phytoplankton groups across gradients of ocean richness are not fully understood. In this work we investigated phytoplankton dynamics along two transects from the NW African coastal upwelling to open-ocean waters of the north Atlantic subtropical gyre. We adopted a pigment-based approach to characterize community structure and to quantify group-specific growth and grazing rates and associated carbon fluxes. Changes in pigment cell concentration during the incubation experiments due to photoadaptation were corrected to obtain reliable rates. The oceanic region was dominated by Prochlorococcus (PRO) (45±7% of total chlorophyll a) while diatoms dominated in upwelling waters (40±37%). Phytoplankton grew faster (μ=0.78±0.26d−1) and free of nutrient limitation (μ/μ n =0.98±0.42) in the coastal upwelling region, with all groups growing at similar rates. In oceanic waters, the growth rate of bulk phytoplankton was lower (μ=0.52±0.16d−1) and nutrient limited (μ/μ n =0.68±0.19d−1). Diatoms (0.80±0.39d−1) and Synechococcus (SYN) (0.72±0.25d−1) grew faster than Prymnesiophyceae (PRYMN) (0.62±0.26d−1) and PRO (0.46±0.18d−1). The growth rates of PRO and SYN were moderately nutrient limited (μ/μ n =0.81 and 0.91, respectively), while the limitation for diatoms (μ/μ n =0.71) and PRYMN (μ/μ n =0.37) was more severe. Microzooplankton grazing rate was higher in upwelling (0.68±0.32d−1) than in oceanic waters (0.37±0.19d−1), but represented the main loss pathway for phytoplankton in both systems (m/μ=0.90±0.32 and 0.69±0.24, respectively). Carbon flux through phytoplankton, produced and grazed, increased from offshore to coastal (∼2 to ∼200μg CL−1 d−1), with diatoms dominating the flux in the upwelling region (52%) while PRYMN (40%) and PRO (30%) dominated in the open ocean. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: Isolation of marine microorganisms is fundamental to gather information about their physiology, ecology and genomic content. To date, most of the bacterial isolation efforts have focused on the photic ocean leaving the deep ocean less explored. We have created a marine culture collection of heterotrophic bacteria (MARINHET) using a standard marine medium comprising a total of 1561 bacterial strains, and covering a variety of oceanographic regions from different seasons and years, from 2009 to 2015. Specifically, our marine collection contains isolates from both photic (817) and aphotic layers (744), including the mesopelagic (362) and the bathypelagic (382), from the North Western Mediterranean Sea, the North and South Atlantic Ocean, the Indian, the Pacific, and the Arctic Oceans. We described the taxonomy, the phylogenetic diversity and the biogeography of a fraction of the marine culturable microorganisms to enhance our knowledge about which heterotrophic marine isolates are recurrently retrieved across oceans and along different depths., Results: The partial sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene of all isolates revealed that they mainly affiliate with the classes Alphaproteobacteria (35.9%), Gammaproteobacteria (38.6%), and phylum Bacteroidetes (16.5%). In addition, Alteromonas and Erythrobacter genera were found the most common heterotrophic bacteria in the ocean growing in solid agar medium. When comparing all photic, mesopelagic, and bathypelagic isolates sequences retrieved from different stations, 37% of them were 100% identical. This percentage increased up to 59% when mesopelagic and bathypelagic strains were grouped as the aphotic dataset and compared to the photic dataset of isolates, indicating the ubiquity of some bacterial isolates along different ocean depths. Finally, we isolated three strains that represent a new species, and the genome comparison and phenotypic characterization of two of these strains (ISS653 and ISS1889) concluded that they belong to a new species within the genus Mesonia., Conclusions: Overall, this study highlights the relevance of culture-dependent studies, with focus on marine isolated bacteria from different oceanographic regions and depths, to provide a more comprehensive view of the culturable marine bacteria as part of the total marine microbial diversity.

Deep ocean microbial communities rely on the organic carbon produced in the sunlit ocean, yet it remains unknown whether surface processes determine the assembly and function of bathypelagic prokaryotes to a larger extent than deep-sea physicochemical conditions. Here, we explored whether variations in surface phytoplankton assemblages across Atlantic, Pacific and Indian ocean stations can explain structural changes in bathypelagic (ca. 4,000 m) free-living and particle-attached prokaryotic communities (characterized through 16S rRNA gene sequencing), as well as changes in prokaryotic activity and dissolved organic matter (DOM) quality. We show that the spatial structuring of prokaryotic communities in the bathypelagic strongly followed variations in the abundances of surface dinoflagellates and ciliates, as well as gradients in surface primary productivity, but were less influenced by bathypelagic physicochemical conditions. Amino acid-like DOM components in the bathypelagic reflected variations of those components in surface waters, and seemed to control bathypelagic prokaryotic activity. The imprint of surface conditions was more evident in bathypelagic than in shallower mesopelagic (200-1,000 m) communities, suggesting a direct connectivity through fast-sinking particles that escape mesopelagic transformations. Finally, we identified a pool of endemic deep-sea prokaryotic taxa (including potentially chemoautotrophic groups) that appear less connected to surface processes than those bathypelagic taxa with a widespread vertical distribution. Our results suggest that surface planktonic communities shape the spatial structure of the bathypelagic microbiome to a larger extent than the local physicochemical environment, likely through determining the nature of the sinking particles and the associated prokaryotes reaching bathypelagic waters., (© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Climate-driven range-shifts create evolutionary opportunities for allopatric divergence and subsequent contact, leading to genetic structuration and hybrid zones. We investigate how these processes influenced the evolution of a complex of three closely related Cystoseira spp., which are a key component of the Mediterranean-Atlantic seaweed forests that are undergoing population declines. The C. tamariscifolia complex, composed of C. tamariscifolia s.s., C. amentacea and C. mediterranea, have indistinct boundaries and natural hybridization is suspected. Our aims are to (1) infer the genetic structure and diversity of these species throughout their distribution ranges using microsatellite markers to identify ancient versus recent geographical populations, contact zones and reproductive barriers, and (2) hindcast past distributions using niche models to investigate the influence of past range shifts on genetic divergence at multiple spatial scales. Results supported a single, morphologically plastic species the genetic structure of which was incongruent with a priori species assignments. The low diversity and low singularity in northern European populations suggest recent colonization after the LGM. The southern Iberian genetic hotspot most likely results from the role of this area as a climatic refugium or a secondary contact zone between differentiated populations or both. We hypothesize that life-history traits (selfing, low dispersal) and prior colonization effects, rather than reproductive barriers, might explain the observed genetic discontinuities.