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Water
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Marine Phytoplankton Diversity
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Marine Phytoplankton Diversity

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Biodiversity and Functionality of Aquatic Ecosystems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 May 2023) | Viewed by 11561

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Zrinka Ljubešić

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Prirodoslovno-Matematički Fakultet, Zagreb, Croatia
Interests: oceanology; phytoplankton taxonomy; marine microbial ecology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Marine phytoplankton are the base of the food web due to the highly efficient process of primary production, which is critical for the biodiversity of organisms from higher trophic levels in the oceans. In one liter of seawater, we may expect millions of phytoplankton cells represented by 100–150 different species. The differentiation between species because of the challenges in microbial taxonomy and diverse species concepts has never been more challenging and under revision than it is today. In recent decades, due to the methodology development, phytoplankton diversity has received a great deal of attention. However, our general knowledge is still fragmented because of the phytoplankton distribution patchiness, size of the sunlit oceans, various sampling methods and analysis techniques, and lack of standardization of methods, traditional taxonomists, and curated collections.

Recently, new autonomous platforms and sensors have been developed to improve the spatiotemporal resolution of the phytoplankton community in the oceans. Those new technologies do meet the requirements of continuous measurements on a large scale, providing more global information on phytoplankton distribution and diversity, but need a strong background in detailed taxonomy.

This Special Issue welcomes high-quality contributions in the field of marine phytoplankton diversity, methods of their investigation, as well as in the response of the phytoplankton community’s diversity to variable environmental stressors.

Prof. Dr. Zrinka Ljubešić
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. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2600 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

  • marine phytoplankton
  • diversity
  • distribution
  • taxonomy
  • microscopy
  • metagenomics
  • remote sensing
  • ocean optics

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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23 pages, 14372 KiB  
Article
Phytoplankton Diversity and Co-Dependency in a Stratified Oligotrophic Ecosystem in the South Adriatic Sea
by Antonija Matek, Maja Mucko, Raffaella Casotti, Anna Chiara Trano, Eric P. Achterberg, Hrvoje Mihanović, Hrvoje Čižmek, Barbara Čolić, Vlado Cuculić and Zrinka Ljubešić
Water 2023, 15(12), 2299; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w15122299 - 20 Jun 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1874
Abstract
The oligotrophy of the southern Adriatic Sea is characterized by seasonal stratification which enables nutrient supply to the euphotic layer. A set of interdisciplinary methods was used to elucidate the diversity and co-dependency of bacterio- and phytoplankton of the water column during the [...] Read more.
The oligotrophy of the southern Adriatic Sea is characterized by seasonal stratification which enables nutrient supply to the euphotic layer. A set of interdisciplinary methods was used to elucidate the diversity and co-dependency of bacterio- and phytoplankton of the water column during the stratification period of July 2021. A total of 95 taxa were determined by microscopy: 58 diatoms, 27 dinoflagellates, 6 coccolithophores, and 4 other autotrophs, which included Chlorophyceae, Chrysophyceae, and Cryptophytes. Nanophytoplankton abundances were higher in comparison to microphytoplankton. The prokaryotic plankton community as revealed by HTS was dominated by Proteobacteria (41–73%), Bacteroidota (9.5–27%), and cyanobacteria (1–10%), while the eukaryotic plankton community was composed of parasitic Syndiniales (45–80%), Ochrophyta (2–18%), Ciliophora (2–21%), Chlorophytes (2–4%), Haptophytes (1–4%), Bacillariophyta (1–13%), Pelagophyta (0.5–12%) and Chrysophyta (0.5–3%). Flow cytometry analysis has recorded Prochlorococcus and photosynthetic picoeukaryotes as more abundant in deep chlorophyll maximum (DCM), and Synechococcus and heterotrophic bacteria as most abundant in surface and thermocline layers. Surface, thermocline, and DCM layers were distinct considering community diversity, temperature, and nutrient correlations, while extreme nutrient values at the beginning of the investigating period indicated a possible nutrient flux. Nutrient and temperature were recognized as the main environmental drivers of phytoplankton and bacterioplankton community abundance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Phytoplankton Diversity)
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15 pages, 5296 KiB  
Communication
Horizontal Distribution and Carbon Biomass of Planktonic Foraminifera in the Eastern Indian Ocean
by Sonia Munir, Jun Sun, Steve L. Morton, Xiaodong Zhang and Changling Ding
Water 2022, 14(13), 2048; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w14132048 - 26 Jun 2022
Viewed by 1940
Abstract
Distribution and carbon biomass of planktonic foraminifera were investigated from the euphotic zone of the Eastern Indian Ocean during a two-month cruise, ‘Shiyan I’ (10 April–13 May 2014). Foraminifera species were collected through plankton net sampling at 44 locations (80.00°–96.10° E, [...] Read more.
Distribution and carbon biomass of planktonic foraminifera were investigated from the euphotic zone of the Eastern Indian Ocean during a two-month cruise, ‘Shiyan I’ (10 April–13 May 2014). Foraminifera species were collected through plankton net sampling at 44 locations (80.00°–96.10° E, 10.08° N–6.00° S). The temperature (°C) ranged between 12.82 and 31.8 °C, the salinity ranged between 32.5 and 35.5, and chlorophyll-a concentrations ranged between 0.005 µg/L and 0.89 µg/L. A total of 20 taxa were identified based on the spherical chamber shell, spines, and a final whorl which were examined under light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Dominant species that were characterized by the high dominant index Y > 0.14–0.46 were Globigerina bulloides, Globigerinoides ruber white, Globigerinella siphonifera, Turborotalita quinqueloba, and Globigerinella calida, contributing to the community up to 86%. The shell size of collected taxa was from 51 to 508 μm and the total carbon biomass was estimated to be between 0.062 µg C m–3 and 26.52 µg C m–3. The high carbon biomass was recorded at two stations in the equator zone. Due to its large size, Globorotalia menardii had total carbon biomass of 3.9 µg C m–3, followed by G. calida 0.68 µg C m−3, Trilobatus sacculifer 0.38 µg C m–3, Orbulina universa 0.56 µg C m–3, and G. ruber white 0.22 µg C m–3, respectively. The Pearson correlation analysis showed that the temperature and chlorophyll-a were two explanatory environmental variables that were found to be highly significant (p < 0.05) and that triggered the distribution and abundance of dominant foraminifera species in the study region. Overall, high abundances and carbon biomass were derived from the euphotic zone and equatorial region of the Eastern Indian Ocean. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Phytoplankton Diversity)
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15 pages, 12574 KiB  
Article
Vertical Distribution of Phytoplankton Community and Pigment Production in the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea during the Late Summer Season
by Jae-Joong Kang, Jun-Oh Min, Yejin Kim, Chang-Hwa Lee, Hyeju Yoo, Hyo-Keun Jang, Myung-Joon Kim, Hyun-Ju Oh and Sang-Heon Lee
Water 2021, 13(23), 3321; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w13233321 - 23 Nov 2021
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2526
Abstract
Phytoplankton community structure, which plays an important role in determining productivity and food web structure, can provide important information for understanding variations in marine ecosystems under projected climate change scenarios. Rising temperatures due to climate change will increase and intensify water stratification. To [...] Read more.
Phytoplankton community structure, which plays an important role in determining productivity and food web structure, can provide important information for understanding variations in marine ecosystems under projected climate change scenarios. Rising temperatures due to climate change will increase and intensify water stratification. To understand the community composition and distribution characteristics of phytoplankton under stratified conditions, phytoplankton pigments were analyzed in the Yellow Sea (YS) and East China Sea (ECS) during the late summer season. In addition, pigment production was measured to estimate the physiological characteristics of phytoplankton relating to light, which is an essential element of photosynthesis. During our observation period, no distinct differences were found in the community composition and pigment production of phytoplankton in the YS and the ECS, but differences in the vertical distribution were observed. Overall, the dominant phytoplankton classes at the surface depth were pico-sized cyanobacteria (46.1%), whereas micro- and nano-sized diatoms (42.9%) were the abundant most classes at a 1% light depth. The major factors controlling the vertical distributions of the phytoplankton community were temperature and nutrients (i.e., nitrate and ammonium). Cyanobacteria were positively correlated with water temperature and ammonium, whereas diatoms were negatively related to water temperature and positively correlated with nitrates. Based on the pigment production, it was found that cyanobacteria at the surface layer encountered excessive irradiance conditions during the study period. The productivity of the cyanobacterial community could be decreased under high-light and high-temperature conditions. This means that cyanobacteria could have a negative influence on the quantity and quality of food available to upper trophic organisms under warmer conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Phytoplankton Diversity)
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Review

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21 pages, 3776 KiB  
Review
Insights into the Morphology and Surface Properties of Microalgae at the Nanoscale by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM): A Review
by Tea Mišić Radić, Petra Vukosav, Andrea Čačković and Alexander Dulebo
Water 2023, 15(11), 1983; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w15111983 - 23 May 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1959
Abstract
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a method that provides the nanometer-resolution three-dimensional imaging of living cells in their native state in their natural physiological environment. In addition, AFM’s sensitivity to measure interaction forces in the piconewton range enables researchers to probe surface properties, [...] Read more.
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a method that provides the nanometer-resolution three-dimensional imaging of living cells in their native state in their natural physiological environment. In addition, AFM’s sensitivity to measure interaction forces in the piconewton range enables researchers to probe surface properties, such as elasticity, viscoelasticity, hydrophobicity and adhesion. Despite the growing number of applications of AFM as a method to study biological systems, AFM is not yet an established technique for studying microalgae. Following a brief introduction to the basic principles and operation modes of AFM, this review highlights the major contributions of AFM in the field of microalgae research. A pioneering AFM study on microalgae was performed on diatoms, revealing the fine structural details of diatom frustule, without the need for sample modification. While, to date, diatoms are the most studied class of microalgae using AFM, it has also been used to study microalgae belonging to other classes. Besides using AFM for the morphological characterization of microalgae at the single cell level, AFM has also been used to study the surface properties of microalgal cells, with cell elasticity being most frequently studied one. Here, we also present our preliminary results on the viscoelastic properties of microalgae cell (Dunaliella tertiolecta), as the first microrheological study of microalgae. Overall, the studies presented show that AFM, with its multiparametric characterization, alone or in combination with other complementary techniques, can address many outstanding questions in the field of microalgae. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Phytoplankton Diversity)
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20 pages, 73793 KiB  
Review
Back to Basics: Revision of Coccolithophore Species List in the Adriatic Sea
by Jelena Godrijan, Jasna Arapov, Sanda Skejić and Mia Bužančić
Water 2023, 15(3), 603; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w15030603 - 03 Feb 2023
Viewed by 2151
Abstract
Coccolithophores are unicellular marine algae belonging to the haptophyte group, characterized by the production of intricate calcium carbonate plates that adorn their cells and exhibit species-specific morphology. The Adriatic Sea has historically been the type locality of numerous phytoplankton species, including coccolithophores. However, [...] Read more.
Coccolithophores are unicellular marine algae belonging to the haptophyte group, characterized by the production of intricate calcium carbonate plates that adorn their cells and exhibit species-specific morphology. The Adriatic Sea has historically been the type locality of numerous phytoplankton species, including coccolithophores. However, since the initial description, many species have not been recorded during the frequent phytoplankton surveys in the Adriatic Sea. This was mainly because these surveys did not use electron microscopy, which is necessary for accurate species identification. In this study, we re-evaluate the coccolithophore species lists using historical records and compare them with recent surveys in the coastal and open waters of the Adriatic Sea. In light of changes in nomenclature resulting from clarification of the species’ life cycles, we update the taxonomic list of coccolithophore species occurring in the Adriatic. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Phytoplankton Diversity)
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