Coastal plankton communities under elevated CO2: community barcoding results, link to data files in FASTA format

The acidification of the oceans could potentially alter marine plankton communities with consequences for ecosystem functioning. While several studies have investigated effects of ocean acidifications on communities using traditional methods, few have used genetic analyses. Here, we use community barcoding to assess the impact of ocean acidification on the composition of a coastal plankton community in a large scale, in situ, long-term mesocosm experiment. High-throughput sequencing resulted in the identification of a wide range of planktonic taxa (Alveolata, Cryptophyta, Haptophyceae, Fungi, Metazoa, Hydrozoa, Rhizaria, Straminipila, Chlorophyta). Analyses based on predicted operational taxonomical units as well as taxonomical compositions revealed no differences between communities in high CO2 mesocosms (~760 µatm) and those exposed to present day CO2 conditions. Observed shifts in the planktonic community composition were mainly related to seasonal changes in temperature and nutrients.

海洋酸化或可改变海洋浮游生物群落结构，进而对生态系统功能产生影响。尽管已有多项研究采用传统方法探究海洋酸化对群落的影响，但鲜有研究借助遗传分析手段开展相关工作。本研究借助群落条形码技术（community barcoding），依托一项大规模、原位、长期的中宇宙实验，评估海洋酸化对近岸浮游生物群落组成的影响。通过高通量测序（high-throughput sequencing），我们鉴定得到了涵盖多个类群的浮游生物，包括囊泡虫门（Alveolata）、隐藻门（Cryptophyta）、定鞭藻纲（Haptophyceae）、真菌（Fungi）、后生动物（Metazoa）、水螅虫纲（Hydrozoa）、丝足虫总门（Rhizaria）、不等鞭毛总门（Straminipila）以及绿藻门（Chlorophyta）。基于预测得到的操作分类单元（operational taxonomical units）以及群落分类组成的分析结果显示，高二氧化碳浓度中宇宙实验体系（约760微大气压）与当前二氧化碳浓度条件下的浮游生物群落并无显著差异。观测到的浮游生物群落组成变化，主要与温度和营养盐的季节波动相关。