This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Supplemental material Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Copyright Information Books from ASM Press MicrobeWorld Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Lovejoy, C. Articles by Pedrós-Alió, C. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Lovejoy, C. Articles by Pedrós-Alió, C. Agricola Articles by Lovejoy, C. Articles by Pedrós-Alió, C.

Next Article 

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, May 2006, p. 3085-3095, Vol. 72, No. 5
0099-2240/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.72.5.3085-3095.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Diversity and Distribution of Marine Microbial Eukaryotes in the Arctic Ocean and Adjacent Seas^,

Québec Océan and Département de Biologie, Université Laval, Quebec, QC, Canada G1K 7P4,¹ Institut de Ciènces del Mar, Centro Mediterráneo de Investigaciones Marinas y Ambientales, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientifìcas, 8006 Barcelona, Spain²

Received 28 July 2005/ Accepted 23 January 2006

We analyzed microbial eukaryote diversity in perennially cold arctic marine waters by using 18S rRNA gene clone libraries. Samples were collected during concurrent oceanographic missions to opposite sides of the Arctic Ocean Basin and encompassed five distinct water masses. Two deep water Arctic Ocean sites and the convergence of the Greenland, Norwegian, and Barents Seas were sampled from 28 August to 2 September 2002. An additional sample was obtained from the Beaufort Sea (Canada) in early October 2002. The ribotypes were diverse, with different communities among sites and between the upper mixed layer and just below the halocline. Eukaryotes from the remote Canada Basin contained new phylotypes belonging to the radiolarian orders Acantharea, Polycystinea, and Taxopodida. A novel group within the photosynthetic stramenopiles was also identified. One sample closest to the interior of the Canada Basin yielded only four major taxa, and all but two of the sequences recovered belonged to the polar diatom Fragilariopsis and a radiolarian. Overall, 42% of the sequences were <98% similar to any sequences in GenBank. Moreover, 15% of these were <95% similar to previously recovered sequences, which is indicative of endemic or undersampled taxa in the North Polar environment. The cold, stable Arctic Ocean is a threatened environment, and climate change could result in significant loss of global microbial biodiversity.

Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://aem.asm.org/.

This study is a contribution to the Canadian Arctic Shelf Exchange Study (CASES) and the Joint Western Arctic Climate Study (JWACS).

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Moline, M. A., Karnovsky, N. J., Brown, Z., Divoky, G. J., Frazer, T. K., Jacoby, C. A., Torres, J. J., Fraser, W. R. (2008). High Latitude Changes in Ice Dynamics and Their Impact on Polar Marine Ecosystems. Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 1134: 267-319 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Lepere, C., Domaizon, I., Debroas, D. (2008). Unexpected Importance of Potential Parasites in the Composition of the Freshwater Small-Eukaryote Community. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 74: 2940-2949 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Not, F., Valentin, K., Romari, K., Lovejoy, C., Massana, R., Tobe, K., Vaulot, D., Medlin, L. K. (2007). Picobiliphytes: A Marine Picoplanktonic Algal Group with Unknown Affinities to Other Eukaryotes. Science 315: 253-255 [Abstract] [Full Text]