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Eukaryotic plankton diversity in the sunlit ocean
22/05/2015
Science 348 (6237) pp. 1261605
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Auteurs
Marine plankton support global biological and geochemical processes. Surveys of their biodiversity have hitherto been geo- graphically restricted and have not accounted for the full range of plankton size. We assessed eukaryotic diversity from 334 size- fractionated photic-zone plankton communities collected across tropical and temperate oceans during the circumglobal Tara Oceans expedition. We analyzed 18S ribosomal DNA sequences across the intermediate plankton-size spectrum from the small- est unicellular eukaryotes (protists, >0.8 micrometers) to small animals of a few millimeters. Eukaryotic ribosomal diversity saturated at ~150,000 operational taxonomic units, about one- third of which could not be assigned to known eukaryotic groups. Diversity emerged at all taxonomic levels, both within the groups comprising the ~11,200 cataloged morphospecies of eukaryotic plankton and among twice as many other deep-branching lin- eages of unappreciated importance in plankton ecology studies. Most eukaryotic plankton biodiversity belonged to heterotrophic protistan groups, particularly those known to be parasites or symbiotic hosts.
Le projet OCEANOMICS bénéficie d'une aide de l'Etat gérée par l'Agence Nationale de Recherche au titre du programme "Investissement d'Avenir" portant la référence ANR-11-BTBR-0008
