Sponsor
Funding was provided through NSF-OCE 1830002 to AWT and 1830011 to MLC. We thank Justin Podowski and María Hernández Limón for sample collection.
Published In
Limnology and Oceanography
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-2023
Subjects
Planktonic eukaryotes -- Research
Abstract
The Laurentian Great Lakes provide economic support to millions of people, drive biogeochemical cycling, and are an important natural laboratory for characterizing the fundamental components of aquatic ecosystems. Small phytoplankton are important contributors to the food web in much of the Laurentian Great Lakes. Here, for the first time, we reveal and quantify eight phenotypically distinct picophytoplankton populations across the Lakes using a multilaser flow cytometry approach, which distinguishes cells based on their pigment phenotype. The distributions and diversity of picophytoplankton flow populations varied across lakes and depths, with Lake Erie standing out with the highest diversity. By sequencing sorted cells, we identified several distinct lineages of Synechococcales spanning Subclusters 5.2 and 5.3. Distinct genotypic clusters mapped to phenotypically similar flow populations, suggesting that there may not be a clear one-to-one mapping between genotypes and phenotypes. This suggests genome-level differentiation between lakes but some degree of phenotypic convergence in pigment characteristics. Our results demonstrate that ecological selection for locally adapted populations may outpace homogenization by physical transport in this interconnected system. Given the reliance of the Lakes on in situ primary production as a source for organic carbon, this work sets the foundation to test how the community structure of small primary producers corresponds to biogeochemical and food web functions of the Great Lakes and other freshwater systems.
Rights
Copyright (c) 2023 The Authors
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Locate the Document
DOI
10.1002/lno.12422
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/40897
Citation Details
Gale, J., Sweeney, C., Paver, S., Coleman, M. L., & Thompson, A. W. (2023). Diverse and variable community structure of picophytoplankton across the Laurentian Great Lakes. Limnology and Oceanography.