Diving Into Bacterioplankton!

By: Chanelle N. Garcia 

Did you know that the Southern Ocean is one of the least explored aquatic environments on Earth? This means that there is little information known of the diversity this ocean consists of. This specific study measured the bacterioplankton community, by sequencing and quantitative PCR, in mesopelagic as well as epipelagic waters. The water samples were collected at two different stations nearby each other, which were known as Station A and Station B, during the Antarctic summer. Water temperature, depth, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and electrical conductivity were all measured by the canocial corresponding analysis (CCA) to determine how the bacterioplankton communities traveled along the entire water column when they changed from epipelagic to mesopelagic areas at both Stations A and B. The results indicated similarities between both stations in the mesopelagic waters, whereas the epipelagic waters showed major differences. This determined that mesopelagic bacterioplankton areas were observed as long water-mass residence times and were considered stable environments. On the other hand, the epipelagic bacterioplankton areas were observed as a short-term environment under variable conditions. Therefore, the bacterioplankton communities are affected by being in the Southern Ocean and the mesopelagic and epipelagic areas contain diverse necessities for the growth and development of the bacterial communities.

This figure represents the CCA , showing the effect of the environmental factors on the bacterial community.



Original Article:  Yu Z., Yang J., Liu L., Zhang W., Amalfitano S. (2015). Bacterioplankton community shifts associated with epipelagic and mesopelagic waters in the Southern Ocean. Scientific Report, doi: 10.1038/srep12897.