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Phytoplankton Phytoplankton • What are the phytoplankton? • How do the main groups differ? Phytoplankton Zooplankton Nutrients Plankton “wandering” or “drifting” (incapable of sustained, directed horizontal movement) www.shellbackdon.com Nekton Active swimmers Components of the Plankton Virioplankton: Viruses Bacterioplankton: Bacteria — free living planktobacteria; epibacteria attached to larger particles Mycoplankton: Fungi Phytoplankton: Photosynthetic microalgae, cyanobacteria, and prochlorophytes Zooplankton: Heterotrophic — Protozooplankton (unicellular) and Metazooplankton (larval and adult crustaceans, larval fish, coelenterates…) Components of the Phytoplankton: Older scheme Netplankton: Plankton that is retained on a net or screen, usually Inspecting a small plankton 20 - 100 µm net. In: "From the Surface to the Bottom of the Sea" by H. Nanoplankton: Plankton that Bouree, 1912, Fig. 49, p. 61. passes the net, but Library Call Number 525.8 B77. which is > 2 µm Ultrananoplankton: Plankton < 2µm Components of the Plankton (older scheme) Netplankton: Plankton that is retained on a net or screen, usually 20 - 100 µm Nanoplankton: Plankton that passes the net, but which is > 2 µm Ultrananoplankton: Plankton < 2µm Microzooplankton: Zooplankton in the microplankton (i.e., < 200 µm) Length Scales to Define Plankton Groups Sieburth, J. M., Smetacek, V. and Lenz, J. (1978). Pelagic ecosystem structure: Heterotrophic compartments of the plankton and their relationship to plankton size fractions. Limnol. Oceanogr. 23: 1256-1263. Terminology and Scales: SI Units FRACTION PREFIX SYMBOL EXAMPLE 10-1 deci d decimeter, 10cm, length of a planktivorous fish 10-2 centi c 1 centimeter, diameter of a ctenophore 10-3 milli m 1 millimeter, length of a copepod 10-6 micro µ 1 micrometer, diameter of a very small phytoplankter or a large bacterium 10-9 nano n 1 nanogram, weight of a fairly small phytoplankter 10-12 pico p 1 picogram, chlorophyll content of one small phytoplankter 10-15 femto f 1 femtogram, amount of ATP in a phytoplankter 10-18 atto a att’s a small number! Scales: The ocean is a dilute environment! ___________________________________________________________________________________ SOME CHARACTERISTIC SCALES (values representative of coastal waters to an order of magnitude) organism linear numerical mm3 m-3 spacing in body dimension density (ppb) lengths copepod 1 mm 5 liter-1 2600 6 cm 60 dinoflagellate 35 µm 10 ml-1 225 5 mm 150 diatom 10 µm 103 ml-1 525 1 mm 100 cyanobacterium 0.6 µm 105 ml-1 11 200 µm 350 bacterium 0.5 µm 106 ml-1 65 100 µm 200 virus 0.07 µm 107 ml-1 2 50 µm 650 Chlorophyll pigment is often equated with phytoplankton biomass • Phytoplankton pigments influence ocean color All phytoplankton were not made equal... • Even though phytoplankton are often considered as light absorbers, packages of pigment, or organic particles, they are biologically very diverse - Phylogenetic - Metabolic - Habitat/Niche Space Light energy is collected by All plants have photosynthetic pigments chlorophylls and carotenoids Some groups (cyanobacteria, cryptophytes, red algae) have phycobiliproteins Pigments are used to infer species composition Pigmentation varies with growth conditions PHYTOPLANKTON Procarya Eucarya (cyanobacteria (Cryptophyceae, (i.e., Synechococcus, Prochlorococcus), Diatoms, N2 fixers Dinoflagellates, (i.e., Trichodesmium)) Coccolithophores, Phaeocystis, Chattonella ) The Taxonomic Groups of Phytoplankton: An Overview 1. Bacteria (prokaryotes) 2. Algae (eukaryotes) • Eubacteria (heterotroph) • Chromophyta (possess chl a and c) • Archebacteria or Archaea (heterotroph) – Cryptophyceae • Cyanobacteria (phototroph) – Dinophyceae – "real Cyanobacteria" – Chrysophyceae • filamentous cyanobacteria, fix – Prymnesiophyceae nitrogen – Bacillariophyceae (diatoms) • coccoid cyanobacteria – Raphidophyceae – Prochlorophytes (recently made a • Chlorophyta (possess chl a and b) new division) – Chlorophyceae – Prasinophyceae – Euglenophyceae The taxonomic composition of phytoplankton does matter... PROKARYOTES (continued): Synechococcus • Discovered in 1979 • very small (ca. 1 µm) • contains phycoerythrin • can fluoresce orange or red • counted with epifluorescence microscopy or flow cytometry http://www.woodrow.org/teachers/esi/1999/ princeton/projects/cyanopigs/data.htm reprinted from Johnson and Sieburth 1979 PROKARYOTES (continued): Prochlorococcus • Discovered in 1988 • Very small (<1.0 µm) • Divinyl chl a • Counted by flow cytometry • Most abundant autotroph on earth reprinted from Johnson and Sieburth 1979 PROKARYOTES (continued): Trichodesmium (Oscillatoria thiebautii) Trichodesmium • Forms aggregates bloom • Fixes nitrogen • Can migrate vertically • May transport phosphate from depth to near surface • New production transports more C www.aims.gov.au/pages/research/ trichodesmium/tricho-01.html http://www.botan.su.se/fysiologi/Cyano/Tricho.jpg EUKARYOTES — having a true nucleus Chromophyta - containing chlorophyll a and c Coscinodiscus waelesii Phytopia CD-ROM Bigelow Laboratory EUKARYOTES (continued): Division Chromophyta Class Cryptophyceae • Motile • Contain phycobiliproteins • Can be recognized by size and fluorescence (flow cytometry) Cryptomonas www.unex.es/botanica/ clases.htm http://mac2031.fujimi.hosei.ac.jp/PDB/Images/Mastigophora/Cryptomonas/Cryptomonas.jpg EUKARYOTES (continued): Division Chromophyta Class Bacillariophyceae (Diatoms) • Cannot swim; Can regulate buoyancy (some can migrate) • Require silicon; Encased in Pill-box shaped silica frustule • Important in coastal areas and spring blooms http://www1.tip.nl/~t936927/art_deco.html www.oregonbd.org/Class/Chap2.htm Diatoms pennate pennate Images from http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/wimsmall/diadr.html Silica frustule Side View epitheca New hypotheca pennate centric Looking Down on the Valve centric EUKARYOTES (continued): Division Chromophyta Class Pyrrophyta (Dinoflagellates) • Motile; Can migrate vertically • “Red tides” and shellfish poisoning • There are autotrophic and heterotrophic species www.jochemnet.de/fiu/phaeocystis.gif Dinoflagellates: Some are bioluminescent Noctiluca Noctiluca bloom www.redtide.whoi.edu/hab/rtphotos/rtphotos.html http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/art98/nocti.html Dinoflagellates Naked Noctiluca EUKARYOTES (continued): Division Chromophyta Class Prymnesiophyceae (Haptophyceae) Coccolithophores Near-real-colour SeaWiFS image of a coccolithophore bloom in the Bering Sea, April 1998. • CaCO3 skeletal plates earthguide.ucsd.edu/demo/zalaska/08_03_1999a.html • pCO2 increases • DMS production www.oregonbd.org/Class/Chap2.htm Emiliania huxleyi earthguide.ucsd.edu/images/eg/img/ehuxleyi.gif Coccolithophores Coccolithophores EUKARYOTES (continued): Division Chromophyta Class Prymnesiophyceae (Haptophyceae) Phaeocystis • Jelly-like colonies clog nets and cause big problems on beaches in Europe http://www.icbm.de/~mathmod/pages/projects/questionna • Food-web alterations ire/figure/phaeocystis.gif • DMS producer • Common in Antarctic http://www.coastalstudies.org/stellwagen/ph yto.htm www.jochemnet.de/fiu/phaeocystis.gif www.bio.uva.nl/Lesbrieven/TomTahey/bovenbouwtekst3.htm EUKARYOTES (continued): Division Chromophyta Class Chrysophyceae Silicolagellates, Pelagomonas, Aureococcus • Aureococcus brown tides http://techcenter.southampton.liu.edu/~cgobler/BrownTide.htm EUKARYOTES (continued): Division Chromophyta Class Raphidophyceae Chattonella, Fibrocapsa, Heterosigma • toxic or harmful blooms Chattonella marina Chattonella antiqua Cells of Chattonella marina showing different forms (ovoid, pointed-end and sausage- www.marine.kais.kyoto-u.ac.jp shaped) and a temporary cyst. www.niwa.cri.nz/pgsf/MarineBiodiversity/ima http://www.uio.no/miljoforum/natur/fj_hav/i ges/algae6.jpg mg/chat_0.gif Sampling/Counting Sampling/Counting Utermöhl Settling chambers Sampling/Counting Flow cytometer Sampling/Counting Sampling/Counting CHEMTAX (HPLC) http://www-ocean.tamu.edu/~pinckney/chemtax.htm.
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