10.5061/DRYAD.MW6M905ZQ
Soria Píriz, Sara
0000-0003-1725-9943
University of Cádiz
Pico- and nanoplankton components along the estuarine gradient of the
inner Gulf of Nicoya, Costa Rica
Dryad
dataset
2022
FOS: Earth and related environmental sciences
2022-05-06T00:00:00Z
2022-05-06T00:00:00Z
en
14103 bytes
3
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Phytoplankton and bacterioplankton represent the base of the aquatic food
webs. The changes in the structure of their communities at different
levels, from taxonomic and functional composition to single cells traits,
and the degree of coupling among them has strong impact on transfer of
energy to higher trophic levels and finally on the fate of organic matter.
Changes in the structural pattern of the microbial community at different
levels have been studied in temperate estuaries, but are poorly
characterized in their tropical counterparts. Here, we show for the first
time changes in single-cell characteristics and abundance and of key
components of the planktonic microbial food web (picocyanobacteria,
photoautotrophic pico- and nanoeukaryotes and heterotrophic bacteria)
during the rainy and dry seasons along the estuarine gradient of the inner
Gulf of Nicoya, one of the most productive estuaries in the world. The
different responses of the microbial functional assemblages changed the
structure of the pelagic microbial community, which likely affects higher
trophic levels and the ecosystem functioning. Moreover, we relate the
changes in the community structure to differences in environmental
conditions along the estuary, during both seasons. Multivariate
ordinations based on the microbial assemblages revealed a stronger
covariation among them and with environmental variables during the dry
season. The relative decrease in the inputs of allochthonous organic
carbon and the increase in solar radiation during the dry season likely
induced a higher degree of coupling between the low size phyto- and
bacterioplankton assemblages along the tropical estuarine gradient due to
increased local production.