Low diversity of planktonic bacteria in the tropical ocean

The diversity of macro-organisms increases towards the equator, with almost no exceptions. It is the most conserved biogeographical pattern on earth and is thought to be related to the increase of temperature and productivity in the tropics. The extent and orientation of a latitudinal gradient of ma...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2016-01, Vol.6 (1), p.19054-19054, Article 19054
Main Authors: Milici, Mathias, Tomasch, Jürgen, Wos-Oxley, Melissa L., Wang, Hui, Jáuregui, Ruy, Camarinha-Silva, Amelia, Deng, Zhi-Luo, Plumeier, Iris, Giebel, Helge-Ansgar, Wurst, Mascha, Pieper, Dietmar H., Simon, Meinhard, Wagner-Döbler, Irene
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
49/23
631/326/171/1878
704/158/855
Aquatic Organisms
Atlantic Ocean
Bacteria
Bacteria - classification
Bacteria - genetics
Bacterioplankton
Biodiversity
Biogeography
Equator
Euphotic zone
Filters
Genes, Bacterial
High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing
Humanities and Social Sciences
Microbial Consortia - genetics
multidisciplinary
Oceanic analysis
Plankton - classification
Plankton - genetics
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - genetics
rRNA 16S
Science
Taxonomy
Temperature effects
Tropical Climate
Tropical environments
Water analysis
Water sampling
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Summary:The diversity of macro-organisms increases towards the equator, with almost no exceptions. It is the most conserved biogeographical pattern on earth and is thought to be related to the increase of temperature and productivity in the tropics. The extent and orientation of a latitudinal gradient of marine bacterioplankton diversity is controversial. Here we studied the euphotic zone of the Atlantic Ocean based on a transect covering ~12.000 km from 51°S to 47 °N. Water samples were collected at 26 stations at five depths between 20 and 200 m and sequentially filtered through 8 μm, 3 μm and 0,22 μm filters, resulting in a total of 359 samples. Illumina sequencing of the V5–V6 region of the 16S rRNA gene revealed a clear biogeographic pattern with a double inverted latitudinal gradient. Diversity was higher in mid-latitudinal regions of the Atlantic Ocean and decreased towards the equator. This pattern was conserved for bacteria from all three planktonic size fractions. Diversity showed a non-linear relationship with temperature and was negatively correlated with bacterial cell numbers in the upper depth layers (
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/srep19054