Very Low Phytoplankton Diversity in a Tropical Saline-Alkaline Lake, with Co-dominance of Arthrospira fusiformis (Cyanobacteria) and Picocystis salinarum (Chlorophyta)
Type | Article |
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Date | 2019-10 |
Language | English |
Author(s) | Bernard C.1, Escalas A.1, Villeriot N.1, 2, Agogué H.5, Hugoni M.3, Duval C.1, Carré C2, Got P.7, Sarazin G.4, Jézéquel D.4, Leboulanger Christophe2, Grossi V.6, Ader M.4, Troussellier M.7 |
Affiliation(s) | 1 : UMR7245MCAM, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle - CNRS, 57 Rue Cuvier, CP 39, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France 2 : UMR 9190 MARBEC, CNRS - Université de Montpellier - IRD – IFREMER, Place Eugène Bataillon, 34095 Montpellier Cedex 5, France 3 : UMR 5557 Ecologie Microbienne, Université Lyon 1 - CNRS – INRA, 69220 Villeurbanne Cedex, France 4 : UMR 7154 Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris - Sorbonne Paris Cité, Université Paris Diderot, 1 rue de Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France 5 : UMR 7266 LIENSs, Université de La Rochelle – CNRS, 2 rue Olympe de Gouges, 17000 La Rochelle, France 6 : Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon, Université de Lyon - CNRS - UCBL - ENSL, 69220 Villeurbanne, France 7 : UMR 9190 MARBEC, CNRS - Université de Montpellier - IRD – IFREMER, Place Eugène Bataillon, 34095 Montpellier Cedex 5, France |
Source | Microbial Ecology (0095-3628) (Springer Science and Business Media LLC), 2019-10 , Vol. 78 , N. 3 , P. 603-617 |
DOI | 10.1007/s00248-019-01332-8 |
WOS© Times Cited | 14 |
Keyword(s) | Phytoplankton, Diversity, Cyanobacteria, Picoeukaryote, Extreme environment, Thalassohaline lake |
Abstract | Lake Dziani Dzaha (Mayotte Island, Indian Ocean) is a tropical thalassohaline lake which geochemical and biological conditions make it a unique aquatic ecosystem considered as a modern analogue of Precambrian environments. In the present study, we focused on the diversity of phytoplanktonic communities, which produce very high and stable biomass (mean2014–2015 = 652 ± 179 μg chlorophyll a L−1). As predicted by classical community ecology paradigms, and as observed in similar environments, a single species is expected to dominate the phytoplanktonic communities. To test this hypothesis, we sampled water column in the deepest part of the lake (18 m) during rainy and dry seasons for two consecutive years. Phytoplanktonic communities were characterized using a combination of metagenomic, microscopy-based and flow cytometry approaches, and we used statistical modeling to identify the environmental factors determining the abundance of dominant organisms. As hypothesized, the overall diversity of the phytoplanktonic communities was very low (15 OTUs), but we observed a co-dominance of two, and not only one, OTUs, viz., Arthrospira fusiformis (Cyanobacteria) and Picocystis salinarum (Chlorophyta). We observed a decrease in the abundance of these co-dominant taxa along the depth profile and identified the adverse environmental factors driving this decline. The functional traits measured on isolated strains of these two taxa (i.e., size, pigment composition, and concentration) are then compared and discussed to explain their capacity to cope with the extreme environmental conditions encountered in the aphotic, anoxic, and sulfidic layers of the water column of Lake Dziani Dzaha. |
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