Dataset Information

A database of marine phytoplankton abundance, biomass and species composition in Australian waters.

ABSTRACT: There have been many individual phytoplankton datasets collected across Australia since the mid 1900s, but most are unavailable to the research community. We have searched archives, contacted researchers, and scanned the primary and grey literature to collate 3,621,847 records of marine phytoplankton species from Australian waters from 1844 to the present. Many of these are small datasets collected for local questions, but combined they provide over 170 years of data on phytoplankton communities in Australian waters. Units and taxonomy have been standardised, obviously erroneous data removed, and all metadata included. We have lodged this dataset with the Australian Ocean Data Network (http://portal.aodn.org.au/) allowing public access. The Australian Phytoplankton Database will be invaluable for global change studies, as it allows analysis of ecological indicators of climate change and eutrophication (e.g., changes in distribution; diatom:dinoflagellate ratios). In addition, the standardised conversion of abundance records to biomass provides modellers with quantifiable data to initialise and validate ecosystem models of lower marine trophic levels.

SUBMITTER: Davies CH

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4915276 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A database of marine phytoplankton abundance, biomass and species composition in Australian waters.

Davies Claire H CH Coughlan Alex A Hallegraeff Gustaaf G Ajani Penelope P Armbrecht Linda L Atkins Natalia N Bonham Prudence P Brett Steve S Brinkman Richard R Burford Michele M Clementson Lesley L Coad Peter P Coman Frank F Davies Diana D Dela-Cruz Jocelyn J Devlin Michelle M Edgar Steven S Eriksen Ruth R Furnas Miles M Hassler Christel C Hill David D Holmes Michael M Ingleton Tim T Jameson Ian I Leterme Sophie C SC Lønborg Christian C McLaughlin James J McEnnulty Felicity F McKinnon A David AD Miller Margaret M Murray Shauna S Nayar Sasi S Patten Renee R Pausina Sarah A SA Pritchard Tim T Proctor Roger R Purcell-Meyerink Diane D Raes Eric E Rissik David D Ruszczyk Jason J Slotwinski Anita A Swadling Kerrie M KM Swadling Kerrie M KM Tattersall Katherine K Thompson Peter P Thomson Paul P Tonks Mark M Trull Thomas W TW Uribe-Palomino Julian J Uribe-Palomino Julian J Waite Anya M AM Yauwenas Rouna R Zammit Anthony A Richardson Anthony J AJ

Scientific data 20160621

There have been many individual phytoplankton datasets collected across Australia since the mid 1900s, but most are unavailable to the research community. We have searched archives, contacted researchers, and scanned the primary and grey literature to collate 3,621,847 records of marine phytoplankton species from Australian waters from 1844 to the present. Many of these are small datasets collected for local questions, but combined they provide over 170 years of data on phytoplankton communities ...[more]

PMID: 27328409

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Project description:Phytoplankton transform inorganic carbon into thousands of biomolecules that represent an important pool of fixed carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur in the surface ocean. Metabolite production differs between phytoplankton, and the flux of these molecules through the microbial food web depends on compound-specific bioavailability to members of a wider microbial community. Yet relatively little is known about the diversity or concentration of metabolites within marine plankton. Here, we compare 313 polar metabolites in 21 cultured phytoplankton species and in natural planktonic communities across environmental gradients to show that bulk community metabolomes reflect the chemical composition of the phytoplankton community. We also show that groups of compounds have similar patterns across space and taxonomy, suggesting that the concentrations of these compounds in the environment are controlled by similar sources and sinks. We quantify several compounds in the surface ocean that represent substantial understudied pools of labile carbon. For example, the N-containing metabolite homarine was up to 3% of particulate carbon and is produced in high concentrations by cultured Synechococcus, and S-containing gonyol accumulated up to 2.5 nM in surface particles and likely originates from dinoflagellates or haptophytes. Our results show that phytoplankton composition directly shapes the carbon composition of the surface ocean. Our findings suggest that in order to access these pools of bioavailable carbon, the wider microbial community must be adapted to phytoplankton community composition.IMPORTANCE Microscopic phytoplankton transform 100 million tons of inorganic carbon into thousands of different organic compounds each day. The structure of each chemical is critical to its biological and ecosystem function, yet the diversity of biomolecules produced by marine microbial communities remained mainly unexplored, especially small polar molecules which are often considered the currency of the microbial loop. Here, we explore the abundance and diversity of small biomolecules in planktonic communities across ecological gradients in the North Pacific and within 21 cultured phytoplankton species. Our work demonstrates that phytoplankton diversity is an important determinant of the chemical composition of the highly bioavailable pool of organic carbon in the ocean, and we highlight understudied yet abundant compounds in both the environment and cultured organisms. These findings add to understanding of how the chemical makeup of phytoplankton shapes marine microbial communities where the ability to sense and use biomolecules depends on the chemical structure.

Dataset Information

A database of marine phytoplankton abundance, biomass and species composition in Australian waters.

Publications

A database of marine phytoplankton abundance, biomass and species composition in Australian waters.

Similar Datasets

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