Spatial and Temporal Distribution and Correlates of Small Potentially Phagotrophic Phytoplankton in the North East US Shelf

Mixoplankton, phytoplankton capable of performing phagotrophy in complement with phototrophy, alter energy and carbon flow through marine food webs. However, much remains to be learned about drivers of mixoplankton abundance and trophic mode tendencies within whole communities in situ. Temperate coasts of the North East US Shelf (NES) are inherently dynamic with respect to temperature, nutrient concentrations, and plankton community composition and thus are an ideal location to study mixoplankton abundance. Samples measuring the abundance of potentially mixoplanktonic nanoeukaryotes (‘mixoplankton’) via LysoTracker and associated biological and environmental conditions were collected during six cruises spanning two years as part of the NES Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) project. We quantify the dependence of mixoplankton abundance on temperature, light, salinity, depth, nutrients, community composition, and find both non-linear and linear dependencies, including a strong inverse association with salinity. The empirical estimates obtained within this study fill knowledge gaps in analyses that quantify coastal ecosystem energy transfer and carbon biogeochemical cycling, as well as help better parameterize models that predict the changing climate.

Presentation Preference: Oral

Primary Presenter: Erica Ewton, University of Rhode Island (eewton@gmail.com)

Authors:

Susanne Menden-Deuer, Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island  (smenden@uri.edu)

Natalie Cohen, Department of Marine Sciences, Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, University of Georgia  (cohen@uga.edu)

Claire Zweirs Cook, Department of Marine Sciences, Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, University of Georgia  (ccs99536@uga.edu)

Pierre Marrec, Graduate School Of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island  (pmarrec@uri.edu)