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Ecology, Diversity and Distribution of Pico-Sized Algae

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A special issue of Microorganisms (ISSN 2076-2607). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Microbiology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2022) | Viewed by 13917

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Tamas Felfoldi

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Guest Editor

Institute of Aquatic Ecology, Centre for Ecological Research, Budapest, Hungary
Interests: microbial ecology; molecular taxonomy

Dr. Boglárka Somogyi

E-Mail Website
Co-Guest Editor

Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
Interests: phytoplankton; green algae; phytoplankton ecology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Pico-sized algae are the main components of primary producers in oceans and oligotrophic lakes, but they could be also abundant in other continental habitats; therefore, they are key members of aquatic food webs. This diverse group constitutes both small cyanobacteria and eukaryotic algae. Several environmental factors could affect the abundance and distribution of individual taxa, and the introduction of high-throughput techniques has resulted in new discoveries in recent decades. This Special Issue will publish papers on the following topics (not exclusively): (1) the role and distribution of photoautotrophic picoplankton in lakes and in oceans; (2) the effect of climate change on picophytoplankton communities; (3) biological interactions of pico-sized algae with viruses, bacteria, protists, fungi and higher organisms; (4) the unexplored diversity of pico-sized algae in extreme environments; (5) new methods for studying picophytoplankton communities; and (6) physiological and ecological features of pico-sized cyanobacteria and eukaryotic algae.

Dr. Tamas Felfoldi
Guest Editor
Dr. Boglárka Somogyi
Co-Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Microorganisms is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

photoautotrophic picoplankton
aquatic habitats
primary production
picocyanobacteria
picoeukaryotic algae
Synechococcus
Prochlorococcus
Choricystis
flow cytometry
aquatic food webs
geographic distribution
chromatic adaptation

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 1997 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Contrasting Community Composition and Co-Occurrence Relationships of the Active Pico-Sized Haptophytes in the Surface and Subsurface Chlorophyll Maximum Layers of the Arctic Ocean in Summer

by Ping Sun, Yuyu Liao, Ying Wang, Eun-Jin Yang, Nianzhi Jiao, Youngju Lee, Jinyoung Jung, Kyoung-Ho Cho, Jong-Kuk Moon and Dapeng Xu

Microorganisms 2022, 10(2), 248; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10020248 - 23 Jan 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3772

Abstract

Haptophytes (Hacrobia: Haptophyta), which can perform phototrophic, phagotrophic, or mixotrophic nutritional modes, are critical for element cycling in a variety of aquatic ecosystems. However, their diversity, particularly in the changing Arctic Ocean (AO), remains largely unknown. In the present study, the biodiversity, community composition, and co-occurrence networks of pico-sized haptophytes in the surface water and subsurface chlorophyll maximum (SCM) layer of the AO were explored. Our results found higher alpha diversity estimates in the surface water compared with in the SCM based on high-throughput sequencing of haptophyte specific 18S rRNA. The community composition of the surface water was significantly different from that of the SCM, and water temperature was identified as the primary factor shaping the community compositions. Prymnesiales (mostly Chrysochromulina), uncultured Prymnesiophyceae, and Phaeocystis dominated the surface water communities, whereas Phaeocystis dominated the SCM communities, followed by Chrysochromulina, uncultured Prymnesiophyceae, and the remaining taxa. The communities of the surface water and SCM layer developed relatively independent modules in the metacommunity network. Nodes in the surface water were more closely connected to one another than those in the SCM. Network stability analysis revealed that surface water networks were more stable than SCM networks. These findings suggest that SCM communities are more susceptible to environmental fluctuations than those in surface water and that future global changes (e.g., global warming) may profoundly influence the development, persistence, and service of SCM in the AO. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecology, Diversity and Distribution of Pico-Sized Algae)

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15 pages, 1205 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Independence of a Marine Unicellular Diazotroph to the Presence of NO₃⁻

by Sophie Rabouille, Benjamin Randall, Amélie Talec, Patrick Raimbault, Thierry Blasco, Amel Latifi and Andreas Oschlies

Microorganisms 2021, 9(10), 2073; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9102073 - 01 Oct 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1845

Abstract

Marine nitrogen (N₂) fixation was historically considered to be absent or reduced in nitrate (NO₃⁻) rich environments. This is commonly attributed to the lower energetic cost of NO₃⁻ uptake compared to diazotrophy in oxic environments. This paradigm often contributes to making inferences about diazotroph distribution and activity in the ocean, and is also often used in biogeochemical ocean models. To assess the general validity of this paradigm beyond the traditionally used model organism Trichodesmium spp., we grew cultures of the unicellular cyanobacterium Crocosphaera watsonii WH8501 long term in medium containing replete concentrations of NO₃⁻. NO₃⁻ uptake was measured in comparison to N₂ fixation to assess the cultures’ nitrogen source preferences. We further measured culture growth rate, cell stoichiometry, and carbon fixation rate to determine if the presence of NO₃⁻ had any effect on cell metabolism. We found that uptake of NO₃⁻ by this strain of Crocosphaera was minimal in comparison to other N sources (~2–4% of total uptake). Furthermore, availability of NO₃⁻ did not statistically alter N₂ fixation rate nor any aspect of cell physiology or metabolism measured (cellular growth rate, cell stoichiometry, cell size, nitrogen fixation rate, nitrogenase activity) in comparison to a NO₃⁻ free control culture. These results demonstrate the capability of a marine diazotroph to fix nitrogen and grow independently of NO₃⁻. This lack of sensitivity of diazotrophy to NO₃⁻ suggests that assumptions often made about, and model formulations of, N₂ fixation should be reconsidered. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecology, Diversity and Distribution of Pico-Sized Algae)

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16 pages, 3128 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Ecophysiological Performance and Traits of Genera within the Stichococcus-like Clade (Trebouxiophyceae) under Matric and Osmotic Stress

by Anh Tu Van, Veronika Sommer and Karin Glaser

Microorganisms 2021, 9(9), 1816; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms9091816 - 26 Aug 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2185

Abstract

Changes in water balance are some of the most critical challenges that aeroterrestrial algae face. They have a wide variety of mechanisms to protect against osmotic stress, including, but not limited to, downregulating photosynthesis, the production of compatible solutes, spore and akinete formation, biofilms, as well as triggering structural cellular changes. In comparison, algae living in saline environments must cope with ionic stress, which has similar effects on the physiology as desiccation in addition to sodium and chloride ion toxicity. These environmental challenges define ecological niches for both specialist and generalist algae. One alga known to be aeroterrestrial and euryhaline is Stichococcus bacillaris Nägeli, possessing the ability to withstand both matric and osmotic stresses, which may contribute to wide distribution worldwide. Following taxonomic revision of Stichococcus into seven lineages, we here examined their physiological responses to osmotic and matric stress through a salt growth challenge and desiccation experiment. The results demonstrate that innate compatible solute production capacity under salt stress and desiccation tolerance are independent of one another, and that salt tolerance is more variable than desiccation tolerance in the Stichococcus-like genera. Furthermore, algae within this group likely occupy similar ecological niches, with the exception of Pseudostichococcus. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecology, Diversity and Distribution of Pico-Sized Algae)

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Review

Jump to: Research

18 pages, 3769 KiB

Open AccessReview

Where the Little Ones Play the Main Role—Picophytoplankton Predominance in the Soda and Hypersaline Lakes of the Carpathian Basin

by Boglárka Somogyi, Tamás Felföldi, Emil Boros, Attila Szabó and Lajos Vörös

Microorganisms 2022, 10(4), 818; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10040818 - 14 Apr 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2167

Abstract

The extreme environmental conditions of the diverse saline inland waters (soda lakes and pans, hypersaline lakes and ponds) of the Carpathian Basin are an advantage for picophytoplankton. The abundance of picophytoplankton in these waters can be up to several orders of magnitude higher than that in freshwater shallow lakes, but differences are also found within different saline water types: higher picophytoplankton abundances were observed in hypersaline lakes compared to humic soda lakes, and their highest numbers were detected in turbid soda lakes. Moreover, their contribution to phytoplankton biomass is higher than that in shallow freshwater lakes with similar trophic states. Based on long-term data, their ratio within the phytoplankton increased with turbidity in the case of turbid soda lakes, while, in hypersaline lakes, their proportion increased with salinity. Picocyanobacteria were only detected with high abundance (>10⁶–10⁷ cells/mL) in turbid soda lakes, while picoeukaryotes occurred in high numbers in both turbid and hypersaline lakes. Despite the extreme conditions of the lakes, the diversity of picophytoplankton is remarkable, with the dominance of non-marine Synechococcus/Cyanobium, Choricystis, Chloroparva and uncultured trebouxiophycean green algae in the soda lakes, and marine Synechococcus and Picochlorum in the hypersaline lakes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecology, Diversity and Distribution of Pico-Sized Algae)

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18 pages, 3166 KiB

Open AccessReview

The “Dark Side” of Picocyanobacteria: Life as We Do Not Know It (Yet)

by Cristiana Callieri, Pedro J. Cabello-Yeves and Filippo Bertoni

Microorganisms 2022, 10(3), 546; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10030546 - 02 Mar 2022

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2884

Abstract

Picocyanobacteria of the genus Synechococcus (together with Cyanobium and Prochlorococcus) have captured the attention of microbial ecologists since their description in the 1970s. These pico-sized microorganisms are ubiquitous in aquatic environments and are known to be some of the most ancient and adaptable primary producers. Yet, it was only recently, and thanks to developments in molecular biology and in the understanding of gene sequences and genomes, that we could shed light on the depth of the connection between their evolution and the history of life on the planet. Here, we briefly review the current understanding of these small prokaryotic cells, from their physiological features to their role and dynamics in different aquatic environments, focussing particularly on the still poorly understood ability of picocyanobacteria to adapt to dark conditions. While the recent discovery of Synechococcus strains able to survive in the deep Black Sea highlights how adaptable picocyanobacteria can be, it also raises more questions—showing how much we still do not know about microbial life. Using available information from brackish Black Sea strains able to perform and survive in dark (anoxic) conditions, we illustrate how adaptation to narrow ecological niches interacts with gene evolution and metabolic capacity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecology, Diversity and Distribution of Pico-Sized Algae)

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