Microplanktonic Community Structure in a Coastal System Relative to a Phaeocystis Bloom Inferred from Morphological and Tag Pyrosequencing Methods

摘要

BackgroundMassive phytoplankton blooms, like the recurrent Phaeocystis proliferation observed every year in the Eastern English Channel (EEC), have a significant influence on the overall planktonic community structure and their food web dynamics. As well as being an important area for local fisheries, the EEC is an ideal ecosystem for work on microbial diversity. This is because, although its environmental context is relatively complex, it is reasonably well understood due to several years of monitoring and morphological observations of its planktonic organisms. The objective of our study was to better understand the under-explored microbial eukaryotic diversity relative to the Phaeocystis bloom.