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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
,
C. Lovejoy,1*
R. Massana,2 and
C. Pedrós-Alió2
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

ABSTRACT
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.

INTRODUCTION
The Arctic Ocean (AO) and surrounding seas have traditionally
been thought of as being dominated by large phytoplankton of
>20 µm (
67); however, recent studies show that these
waters have active microbial food webs that are often dominated
by cells of <3 µm (
37,
57) and that cells of <5
µm are responsible for much of the carbon fixation over
wide regions of the Arctic Basin (
23,
31). The Arctic Ocean
is an enclosed sea with a cold, moderately fresh (<30 practical
salinity units) upper mixed layer of 30 to 60 m. These upper
photic zone waters are separated from deeper waters by a strong
halocline that is maintained by large riverine inputs and the
annual formation and melting of sea ice (
1). The physical isolation,
perennially cold water temperatures (<0°C), and extreme
annual light cycle provide a distinct marine habitat for microorganisms
(
15). 16S rRNA gene surveys have uncovered novel archaeal and
eubacterial sequences from remote polar regions (
6,
7,
12),
confirming that these ambient conditions select for particular
microorganisms, but there are no equivalent studies of microbial
eukaryotes. North polar latitudes are predicted to warm rapidly
as a result of global climate change and have already experienced
significant impacts (
2,
48). An assessment of current microbial
diversity is therefore paramount for this region at this early
stage in climate modification.
Isolated and extreme environments have been important sources of novel phylotypes (33, 47) that have contributed to the recent major reassessment of eukaryotic evolution (5). rRNA gene sequences from uncultured marine eukaryotes have also led to major revisions of eukaryotic phylogeny at multiple taxonomic levels (25, 40, 51). This is the first major study of the molecular diversity of small eukaryotes in arctic marine waters. We collected samples for DNA analysis from the AO and the Canadian and European Arctic Seas to investigate the diversity of picoeukaryotes (<3-µm-diameter cells) by analysis of 18S rRNA gene clone libraries. Our results show the dominance and diversity of radiolarians and the presence of novel lineages in diverse protist groups.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Oceanographic sampling and environmental data.
Samples were collected as part of three nearly simultaneous
oceanographic expeditions to different regions of the Arctic
(Fig.
1). Canada Basin Arctic Ocean stations AO-NW01 (75°59'13"N,
156°52"9'W; maximum depth [
Zmax], 801 m) and AO-NW08 (76°46'62"N,
148°57"55'W;
Zmax, 3,474 m) were sampled from the Canadian
Coast Guard ship
Louis St. Laurent. Temperature, pressure, and
conductivity measurements were done using a Sea-Bird Electronics
SBE-911 conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) profiler mounted
on a General Oceanics rosette carousel equipped with 24 12-liter
Niskin bottles (
42). Chlorophyll
a (Chl
a) was analyzed on board
(
31), as were the major nutrients nitrate (NO
3), soluble reactive
phosphorus, and silica, using standard techniques (
8).
The Canadian Beaufort Sea Station BS-MD65 (133°31'19"W,
70°08'40"N;
Zmax, 33 m) was sampled from the Canadian Coast
Guard ship
Radisson on 3 October 2002 using a Seabird CTD rosette
as described above. Nutrient (NO
3, soluble reactive phosphorus,
and silica) samples were analyzed on board using an ALPKEM autoanalyzer
and routine colorimetric methods (
24). Samples for Chl
a were
filtered through GF/F filters and then stored frozen (80°C)
until pigment extraction in ethanol (
53).
The convergence of the Greenland, Norwegian and Barents Seas (GNB) was sampled on 26 to 28 August 2002. Stations M09 (76°19'06"N, 23°44'42"E; Zmax, 67 m) and Z59 (76°19'54"N, 3°59'12"E; Zmax, 3,231 m) were sampled from the F/F Johan Hjort (Norwegian Institute of Marine Research). Samples were collected from a Seabird 10 CTD rosette system mounted with 10 5-liter Niskin bottles. Nutrients were analyzed at the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research using standard techniques, and Chl a concentrations were determined on board (60).
These differences in methodologies among the cruises mean that absolute comparisons should be made with some caution. However, for nutrients all three methods were substantially the same colorimetric techniques optimized for the autoanalyzer systems used by the different laboratories, and all met established standards and calibration requirements (http://www.pangaea.de/Projects/JGOFS/Methods/chap8.html). Similarly, there were minor differences in Chl a methodologies; despite this, Chl a values can be practically compared for upper mixed-layer marine waters at the sites sampled (29). At all stations, water samples for DNA analysis were collected directly from the Niskin bottles into clean bottles that had been rinsed with acid (10% HCl) and then with MilliQ water, followed by three rinses of sample water prior to filtering. Canadian microbial samples were collected by filtering 1 to 2 liters of seawater under <5 mm Hg pressure. The particles were successively trapped onto 47-mm-diameter, 3-µm-pore-size polycarbonate prefilters and then onto 0.22-µm-pore size, 47-mm Durapore filters. For Norwegian samples, 4 to 5 liters of water was prefiltered as described above and microbial biomass collected in 0.22-µm Sterivex filter units with a peristaltic pumping system. Filters were frozen at 70°C in lysis buffer (40 mM EDTA, 50 mM Tris-HCl, 0.75 M sucrose) until nucleic acid was extracted.
DNA extractions.
Sample filters were thawed on ice and then digested using lysozyme (final concentration, 1 mg ml1) and proteinase K (0.21 mg ml1). Lysates were recovered and nucleic acids extracted with phenol-chloroform-isoamyl alcohol (25:24:1), followed by chloroform-isoamyl alcohol (24:1), and concentrated using Centricon-100 concentrators (Millipore) (21).
DNA amplification, cloning, and sequencing.
A total of eight clone libraries were constructed (Table 1). Eukaryotic 18S rRNA genes were amplified by PCR with eukaryote-specific primers EukA and EukB (44). Amplified rRNA gene products from several individual PCRs were pooled, cleaned using a QIAGEN purification kit, and then cloned with the TA cloning kit (Invitrogen) following the manufacturer's directions. Positive colonies were screened for restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLP) with HaeIII (Gibco BRL). Clones with the same RFLP pattern were grouped and considered members of the same phylotype (21). Phylotypes were sequenced using the Euk 528F primer and Big Dye (3.1) Terminator ready-reaction mix to obtain a 750- to 800-bp segment covering conserved and rapidly evolving regions of the small-subunit rRNA gene (50, 68). Additional universal eukaryotic primers (Euk 336f, 516r, and 1055f) were used to obtain a nearly complete 18S rRNA gene sequence from selected clones. Sequencing was done by the Serveis Científico-Tècnics, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, Spain), with an ABI3100 automated sequencer.
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TABLE 1. Stations, sample depths, and physical properties of and nutrient concentrations in water sampled for the clone libraries
|
Phylogenetic analysis.
The closest match to each sequence was obtained from NCBI BLAST
(
4). Poor-quality sequences and suspected chimeras were checked
by using BLAST with sequence segments separately and then using
the Chimera check program at Ribosomal Data Project II (Michigan
State University;
http://35.8.164.52/cgis/chimera.cgi?su = SSU).
The sequences that passed chimeric screening were phylogenetically
grouped and aligned using Clustal X v.1.83 (
64); alignments
were manually checked using Bioedit v.5.0.9 (
27). Tree construction
was done with PAUP v.4.0b10 (Sinauer Associates, Inc., Sunderland,
Massachusetts), using neighbor-joining (NJ) and maximum-likelihood
(ML) methods (
25). Difficult or poorly aligned positions and
divergent regions were eliminated using Gblocks (
17) with a
minimum block of five and allowed gap positions equal to half.
Clade credibility was checked with a heuristic search using
MrBayes v.3_0b4 (
66). Accession numbers for sequences used in
phylogenies are given in the supplemental material.
Nucleotide sequence accession numbers.
Sequences reported in this paper have been deposited in GenBank under accession numbers DQ055149 to DQ055172, DQ062463 to DQ062515, DQ119893 to DQ120009, DQ314809 to DQ314838, and DQ344786 to DQ344806.

RESULTS
Environmental.
The two sides of the Arctic covered a range of temperatures
and salinities (Table
1). Nutrient concentrations were low in
surface waters at all stations and were greater in deeper waters
below the halocline. Chl
a levels were low at all sites except
GNB-M09 (2.81 µg Chl
a liter
1). For station GNB-Z59
at the western edge of the GNB transect, Chl
a levels were low
in the surface and extremely low in the 60-m sample (0.03 µg
Chl
a liter
1). Canada Basin AO sites had a sharp halocline
at ca. 30 m, and Chl
a levels were greater in the deeper water
than at the surface. This was especially marked at AO-NW08,
where Chl
a levels were 7 times greater at 50 m than at 5 m.
Temperatures were below 0°C, except in the GNB, which had
summer surface warming and was influenced by North Atlantic
boundary currents (
52).
Clone libraries.
Each library yielded between 96 and 288 positive clones, with a minimum of 48 and a maximum of 195 clones that were RFLP screened for individual libraries. Overall, 85% of our partial sequences (700 to 800 bp) were easily aligned and taxonomically assigned to known groups (Fig. 2 and 3). One or two archaeal 16S ribosomal sequences were amplified from nearly all stations; BLAST matches were poor for these sequences, and they are not considered further in this analysis. Metazoans were recovered from three sites. The metazoans were diverse and included hydrozoans, a polychaete, and copepods (Table 2). Among the target protist sequences, we found novel clades and groups (Fig. 2) that were unreported or rare in other environmental surveys (21, 22, 35, 46).
Stramenopiles.
Out of 236 protist sequences, 45 were >98% similar to uncultivated
marine stramenopiles (MAST) (Fig.
1; Table
3). Our most frequent
MAST phylotypes were within MAST clusters 1, 3, and 7. Within
the phototrophic stramenopiles were sequences closest to the
dictyochophyte
Pseudopedinella, a pelagophyte, and the colorless
ochromonad
Spumella (NOR50.37, 95%) (Fig.
4a). We also recovered
diatoms and bolidophytes; our diatom sequences were mostly related
to polarcentric and araphid species, including
Fragilariopsis cylindrus and a
Gonioceros sp. originally isolated from the
Arctic (Fig.
4a to d). A cluster of four sequences (novel phototrophic
stramenopiles) had BLAST scores that were 95% similar to those
for bolidophytes, diatoms, and the environmental clone C2_018
from the Guaymas basin (
22). Analysis of the nearly complete
sequences (1,710 bp) placed this cluster as a sister to the
bolidophytes (Fig.
4a and b).
Alveolates.
Nearly 40% of our phylotypes were alveolates. ML and NJ methods
clearly separated all but one of these, NOR50.43 (<94% similarity
with dinoflagellates), into four major groups: dinoflagellates,
novel alveolate groups I and II (
35), and ciliates (Fig.
1 and
5a to c). Nearly all of the dinoflagellate sequences were 97
to 99% similar to known dinoflagellates, with the exception
of one cluster from GNB-M09 that was 96% similar to
Cochlodinium polykrikoides (Fig.
5c). The 18S rRNA gene is generally poor
at resolving phylogenetic relationships within the dinoflagellates,
and many morphologically distinct genera are often >98% identical
(
63). Our ML analysis was still useful for defining the closest
relatives of our environmental sequences and their relationships
to each other. For example, one Beaufort Sea sequence was identical
over 750 bp to the common polar dinoflagellate
Heterocapsa rotundata (
37) (Fig.
5a).
Among alveolate groups I and II, we found several phylotypes
from both sides of the Arctic that were 99% similar to deep
Guaymas Ocean Basin sequences (
22) (Fig.
5b). Alveolate group
II was diverse, with several sequences from the AO and Beaufort
Sea stations being closest to
Amoebophrya spp. and the remainder
being most similar to other environmental sequences (Fig.
5b).
Our ciliate phylotypes were mostly distantly related to known
species, with one exception: several GNB sequences were >99%
similar to the tintinnid genus
Tintinnopsis (one is shown in
Fig.
5c). The closest BLAST matches for a majority of ciliate
sequences were to one
Strombidium strain (SNB99-2), and a closer
analysis showed that these made up two separate lineages (Strom
A and B in Fig.
5c). Most of the other ciliates were Choreotricha
related to Strobolids and Tintinnidae. Two sequences fell on
a long branch within the Nassophorea
Furgasonia blochmanni (NOR50.36)
and
Cryptocaryon (MD65.14), a fish pathogen.
Other algae.
We recovered sequences from four other algal classes. Cryptophytes were recovered in the Beaufort Sea, a haptophyte was recovered from the GNB, and a novel algal class (F. Not, K. Valentin, K. Romari, C. Lovejoy, and R. Massana, unpublished data) was discovered on both sides of the Arctic (Fig. 1). Prasinophyte sequences were present in all but one of the libraries and were 98 to 99% similar to three genera: Bathycoccus, Micromonas, and Mantoniella (Fig. 1). These were all most similar to cultured isolates (C. Lovejoy, unpublished data).
Other heterotrophic flagellates.
We recovered three choanoflagellate phylotypes, two from the Beaufort Sea and the other from the GNB (Fig. 3). Another six sequences were closest to an environmental sequence from Blanes Bay (Spain), BL010625.25 (97 to 98% BLAST matches). This sequence has been linked to the predatory flagellate Telonema (39).
Rhizaria.
Cercozoans and radiolarians (51) were well represented in our libraries (Fig. 6). These generally had poor BLAST matches to known or environmental sequences, except for three sequences from GNB at 5 m and one AO site, which were >98% similar to the algal predator Cryothecomonas. Two other AO sequences were more distantly related to Cryothecomonas, forming a separate cluster (Fig. 6a). Finally, several GNB phylotypes formed an additional distinct cluster (Fig. 6a) with closest BLAST matches (ca. 94%) to chlorarachniophytes, Cercozoa with green algal endosymbionts. These environmental sequences were 99% similar to each other over 1,780 bp but were <86% similar to any complete sequence in GenBank.
Among the Radiolaria, we recovered 19 sequences that were most
similar to a few environmental sequences reported elsewhere
and <92% similar to identified organisms. The Radiolaria
split into two main groups. One branch consisted of the Spumellarida
(classed within the Polycystinea). The second branch split further
into two major groups: Acantharea and Spongodiscidae (also currently
in the Polycystinea), united with the Taxopodida (Fig.
6b to d).

DISCUSSION
Diversity.
Charting the true dimensions of eukaryotic diversity is essential
to fully understand evolution and, by extension, the ecological
complexity of microbial food webs. Molecular surveys provide
a primary route towards this understanding, and each new environment
studied has yielded new insights into particular aspects of
eukaryotic diversity and evolution (
5). To date these studies
have revealed new lineages and unexpected diversity within previously
known lineages in open oceans (
21,
35,
46), coastal areas (
39,
54), anaerobic sediments (
19), acid rivers (
71), and deep sea
vents (
22,
33). The Arctic proved to be a rich source of novel
sequences, and this study extends the geographical record of
recently discovered lineages known only from environmental sequences.
Among the stramenopiles, the majority of our heterotrophic lineages belonged to MAST clusters 1, 3, and 7, which have previously been reported from open pelagic systems, and Massana et al. (40) argued that these are planktonic and cosmopolitan and graze on bacteria. The phototrophic stramenopiles from the AO were mostly araphid diatoms (Fig. 4d), while centric diatoms and bolidophytes were recovered from the GNB (Fig. 4b and c). The difference is likely due to the histories of the water masses. The GNB cuts across southward-flowing Arctic water and northward-flowing Atlantic water, which is relatively low in silicic acid required for diatom growth (52). In contrast, Pacific water, which is the source of the upper mixed layer of the Western Arctic, is high in silicic acid (43, 61). Even on small scales, water masses can have an influence on community structure (36, 37).
We recovered one novel cluster from the AO and Beaufort Sea samples that was a sister to the bolidophytes (Fig. 4a and b). This cluster may be a candidate for the bipolar order Parmales, which has distinct siliceous plates. These organisms have never been brought into culture or sequenced and are uniquely described from environmental electron microscopy studies (11).
The members of alveolate group II were diverse, with several sequences from the AO and Beaufort Sea stations being closest to Amoebophrya spp. and the remainder being most similar to other environmental sequences (Fig. 5b). Amoebophrya is an alveolate that is parasitic on dinoflagellates and currently classed within the dinophycean order Syndiniales; the type taxon Syndinium turbo is a zooplankton parasite (63). It seems likely that all group II alveolates are parasitic with picoplanktonic life stages (69). Recently Ellobiopsids, which are also parasites on zooplankton, have been found to be phylogentically affiliated with group I alveolates (58), suggesting that this group may also be parasitic. The ubiquitous distribution of group I and II alveolates in the sea suggests that these organisms are a fundamental component of marine microbial ecosystems and that the ecological impact of parasitism in open marine waters is underestimated.
Rhizaria.
Nikolaev et al. (51) have suggested a monophyletic origin of bikont amoeboid eukaryotes. This supergroup (18) includes marine Cercozoa, Foraminifera, and Haeckel's Radiolaria (26). Among the GNB cercozoa, we found sequences that were 98 to 99% similar to those of the algal predator Cryothecomonas and another more distant clade. This genus was originally described from sea ice (65) and is easily identified microscopically and commonly recorded elsewhere, including the Canadian Arctic (28, 37). Cryothecomonas was not found among the AO sequences. Other GNB phylotypes formed an additional distinct cluster on the same branch as the chlorarachniophytes. Chlorarachniophytes are a primary endosymbiotic group containing chlorophyll b.
The AO libraries were particularly rich in radiolarians. The phylogenetic position of Radiolaria proposed by Haeckel, especially the skeletal Polycystinea and Acantharea, has generated considerable debate, with a few environmental sequences provoking recent phylogenetic reassessments (34, 70). Nikolaev et al. (51) describe three major lineages: Acantharea, Polycystinea, and Taxopodida. The Polycystinea sequences used in that analysis all belonged to the Spumellarida, and the order Taxopodida was suggested on the strength of one freshwater protist, Sticholonche ankle, and two marine environmental sequences, DH145-KW16 and CS_E043. The environmental sequence AT4-94 from mid-Atlantic ridge sediment (33) was outside the Taxopodida. Subsequently, Takahashi et al. (62) found that polycystinean Spongodiscidae grouped with DH145-KW16 and were more closely related to acantharians than to the colonial and nonskeletonal Polycystinea in the Spumellarida; they did not include the Sticholonche sequence in their analysis. Addition of our sequences resulted in tree topologies that place DH145-KW16 and AT4-94 into a monophyletic clade within Taxopodida that includes solitary shell-bearing Spongodiscidae (Fig. 6a), confirming that Polycystinea are paraphyletic and in need of taxonomic revision (62).
Several of our sequences were closest to the Antarctic DH145-HA2, and our ML analysis suggests that, rather than being an independent lineage, these are at the base of the Spumellarida (Fig. 6c). Another five of our sequences were acantharians (Fig. 6b); these were 98% similar to the hydrothermal vent sequence C3_E029 taken from sediment cores in the deep Guaymas Basin (22), suggesting wide adaptation or long-distance transport of these organisms. The abundance of skeleton-bearing radiolarians in the Canada Basin suggests they are present and active in surface cold arctic waters. Paleoceanographic studies have previously documented the widespread distribution of silica spicules, and tests of the Polycystinea in arctic sediments (3, 10) and knowledge of the life stages of this group will be valuable as a tool to compare sediment records with current conditions.
Size fractionation.
Despite 3-µm prefiltration, we recovered 18S rRNA gene sequences from larger organisms, notably dinoflagellates and ciliates (Fig. 3) and metazoa (Table 2). This phenomenon has been reported elsewhere (39, 54) and may be the result of flexible cells that can be forced through the 3-µm filter pores, cell breakage during sample collection, or sloppy feeding by zooplankton. The diversity of metazoan sequences (Table 2) suggests retention of either dissolved free DNA adhering to small particles or DNA-containing particles (13, 20), rather than contamination by one errant zooplankton. DNA readily binds to silica particles (49), and broken diatom frustules may provide such a source of silica. Dinoflagellates and ciliates are also usually >3 µm; however, those without rigid cell walls may be able to deform sufficiently to pass through the filter. Ciliates, dinoflagellates, and other naked protists also produce small, slow-sinking minipellets (14, 59) that may retain DNA from either the predator or its prey. These alveolates and other phagotrophic protists would have been the main grazers at this time of year and actively graze on each other (32). The retention of small particulates in the upper water column may explain the presence of the 18S rRNA genes from these organisms. At least some of the diversity reported from environmental surveys of unseen picoeukaryotes may be an artifact of DNA preservation in cold saline-buffered waters, in addition to incomplete sequence data for described organisms (9, 56). Future research comparing the diversity of the larger size fraction and the application of specific probes combined with microscopy (for example, fluorescence in situ hybridization) may help to resolve the origin of seemingly large-celled organisms in the smallest size fractions.
Our prefiltration technique yielded many sequences from picoplanktonic organisms, for example, marine stramenopiles (39), the prasinophyte Bathycoccus, and species with picosize life stages, such as the parasitic Amoebophrya (55). The radiolarian sequences may have come from either small zoospore stages or preserved DNA. Molecular surveys might conservatively be thought of as evidence of the phylotype's presence in the recent past (a footprint) in combination with community diversity at the moment of collection.
Diversity.
In contrast to other studies (35, 46) and all of our other libraries, one library (NW415) was surprisingly lacking in diversity. Except for one ciliate and one MAST, all sequences recovered were either diatoms or Taxopodida (Fig. 3 and 6 and Table 3). This region of the Arctic is historically covered in thick multiyear ice, but in 2002 warm conditions caused a retraction of the ice cap over the Western Arctic (42), exposing these waters to high surface irradiance for the first time. The low levels of nutrients, especially nitrate, which is considered the limiting nutrient over much of the Arctic (15, 16, 30, 38), suggest that the strong halocline suppressed an upward flux of nutrients needed to support microbial growth, resulting in low biomass in the gyre system. This low-diversity biological community was a rare marine example of colonizer species, equivalent to primary succession on land following glacial retreat. With the ongoing effects of climate change in this region, such conditions and depauperate microbial assemblages may be increasingly common. The newly open waters would not be a substitute for the lost productive ice edge habitat over shallow shelves, which currently supports marine mammals and birds over most of the polar regions (16).
Conclusion.
Some sequences from both sides of the Arctic were >99% similar. Among heterotrophic protists, several sequences were closely related to environmental clones from the deep ocean, which is perennially cold. Phylotypes with <99% similarity to other sequences could be unique species, ecotypes adapted to cold waters, or broadly temperature-tolerant cosmopolitan species. In total, 42% of our sequences were <98% (a standard microbial benchmark of genus-level diversity) similar to publicly available sequences. Overall, we report new representatives from five of eight major marine eukaryotic lineages (5). The remote AO Canada Basin proved to be a rich source of evolutionarily informative sequences, and the importance of radiolarians in these waters was previously unknown. The stable cold temperature of these waters and nutrient supply rates are likely to be the main factors selecting for community species composition (38). Global predictions are that the Arctic could warm as much as 10°C within several decades (45). Higher temperatures, increased water column mixing due to loss of ice cover, and changing current patterns (41) mean that uniquely polar phylotypes are a vulnerable component of global genetic diversity.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering
Research Council of Canada (NSERC); ESTRAMAR (CTM2004-12631/MAR,
MEC), Spain; PICODIV (EVK3-CT-199-00021); the European Union;
and Fonds Québécois de Recherche sur la Nature
et les Technologies, Québec, Canada. Oceanographic sampling
was made possible by the Strategic Science Fund from Fisheries
and Oceans, Canada; the Japan Marine Science and Technology
Center; the Canada Climate Action Fund; and funds from ARTIC
(REN2001-4909-E/ANT, MCyT), Spain.
We thank the captains and crews of the research vessels Louis St. Laurent and Pierre Radisson (Canada) and Johan Hjort (Norway) and scientists F. McLaughlin, E. Carmack, K. Shimada, M. Fortier, R. Ingvaldsen, and J.-É. Tremblay. We thank V. Balagué, V. Farjalla, and C. Nemecz-Wieltschnig for laboratory assistance and W. F. Vincent for critically reading the manuscript. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions and comments.
The authors have no conflicting financial interests associated with this research and do not endorse products mentioned.

FOOTNOTES
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Québec Océan and Département de Biologie, Université Laval, Quebec, QC, Canada G1K 7P4. Phone: (418) 656-2007. Fax: (418) 656-2043. E-mail:
connie.lovejoy{at}bio.ulaval.ca.

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). 

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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, May 2006, p. 3085-3095, Vol. 72, No. 5
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