Temporal dynamics of eukaryotic microbial diversity at a coastal Pacific site

High-throughput sequencing of ocean biomes has revealed vast eukaryotic microbial diversity, asignificant proportion of which remains uncharacterized. Here we use a temporal approach tounderstanding eukaryotic diversity at the Scripps Pier, La Jolla, California, USA, via high-throughput amplicon sequencing of the 18S rRNA gene, the abundances of both Synechococcusand Synechococcus grazers, and traditional oceanographic parameters. We also exploit ourability to track OTUs temporally to evaluate the ability of 18S sequence-based OTU assignmentsto meaningfully reflect ecological dynamics. The eukaryotic community is highly dynamic interms of both species richness and composition, though proportional representation of higher-order taxa remains fairly consistent over time. Synechococcus abundance fluctuates throughoutthe year. This study has resulted in a temporal dataset of eukaryotic 18S sequences that cover a wide range of taxa and offers insights into the pier microbial community and how it changes with time.