Descripción: Several satellite models classify phytoplankton functional types (PFT) based on cell size. In this study we used field data from the Argentine Sea on both the photosynthetic and the bio-optical properties of phytoplankton to distinguish photosynthetic and bio-optical phytoplankton types (PBPT). Cluster analyses were run using data from 70 stations sampled during 3 periods to distinguish different PBPT, and principal component analysis was used to describe them. We examined the main taxonomic composition and percentage of chl a in the <5 μm size fraction found within the PBPT. The distribution of PBPT in relation to hourly primary production and environmental conditions was also investigated. The results showed a high degree of variability in biooptical and photosynthetic properties, e.g. the specific absorption coefficient of phytoplankton, aB ph(440), varied between 0.015 and 0.067 m2 (mg chl a)-1, and the maximum production at light saturation, PB m, varied between 0.68 and 10.05 mg C (mg chl a)-1 h-1. This resulted in the discrimination of 11 PBPT. Some had similar average cell sizes but differed in their bio-optical or photosynthetic characteristics, e.g. PBPT1 (with diatoms <5 μm and Emiliania huxleyi 2-5 μm) and PBPT6 (with diatoms <5 μm and coccal cells ∼2 μm) had markedly different PB m values (PBPT1: 1.20 mg C (mg chl a)-1 h-1 and PBPT6: 6.71 mg C (mg chl a)-1 h-1). This variability in the bio-optical and physiological properties is most likely the result of adaptation by phytoplankton communities to the high heterogeneity in environmental conditions in this region. These results indicate that satellite models describing the distribution of PFT based on cell size alone will not provide a realistic representation of the phytoplankton composition in this highly productive and heterogeneous area. © 2013 The authors.

Descripción: The influence of the plankton community structure on carbon dynamics was studied in the surface waters of the Argentinean continental shelf (SW Atlantic Ocean) in summer and fall 2002, 2003 and 2004, The horizontal changes in plankton community respiration (R), net community production (NCP) and gross primary production (GPP) were (1) compared with the difference in the partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) between the sea surface and the atmosphere (ΔpCO2), (2) compared with oxygen saturation and (3) related to the microscopic phytoplankton assemblages, This area, which has recently been shown to be a CO2 sink, had an average surface oxygen saturation of 108.1%, indicating that net photosynthesis could have played a dominant role in the CO2 dynamics. At most stations, the production:respiration (GPP:R) ratio was greater than 1, indicating that planktonic communities were autotrophic; the average GPP:R ratio for the whole study was 2.99, Phytoplankton biomass (chlorophyll a) and NCP showed an inverse relationship with ΔpCO2 and a direct relationship with %O 2 saturation when phytoplankton assemblages were dominated by diatoms (30% of the stations), This was not the case when small (≤5 μm) flagellates were the most abundant organisms, Although NCP was mostly positive for both groups of stations (i.e. diatom-dominated or small flagellate- dominated), other physical and biological processes are thought to modify the CO2 dynamics when small flagellates are the prevailing phytoplankton group. © Inter-Research 2007.

Descripción: An experimental study using mesocosms was conducted in the main shallow lake of a temperate wetland (Otamendi Natural Reserve, Argentina) to analyse the impact of zooplankton on phytoplankton and the microbial assemblages. The lake is characterised by the presence of a fluctuating cover of floating macrophytes, whose shading effects shape the phytoplakton community and the ecosystem functioning, which was absent during the study period. The experiment was run in situ using polyethylene bags, comparing treatments with and without zooplankton. The cascade effect of zooplankton on phytoplankton and the lower levels of the microbial food web (ciliates, heterotrophic nanoflagellates (HNF) and picoplankton) were analysed. A significant zooplankton grazing on the nano-phytoplankton fraction (3-30 μm) was observed. Conversely, large algae (filamentous cyanobacteria, colonial chlorophytes and large diatoms) increased in all mesocosms until day 10, suggesting that they were not actively grazed by zooplankton during this period. However, from day 10 until day 17 this fraction decreased in the enclosures with mesozooplankton, probably due to an increase in the abundance of large herbivores. The results of the experiment would also indicate a trophic cascade effect on the lower levels of the microbial community. In the treatment where zooplankton was removed, the abundance of ciliates followed the same increasing pattern as the abundance of HNF, but with a time lag in its response. In the enclosures without zooplankton, HNF remained relatively constant throughout the experiment, whereas ciliates strongly decrease during the last week. Total picoplankton abundance increased in the enclosures with mesozooplankton, thus supporting the existence of a four-link trophic cascade (copepods-microzooplankton-HNF-picoplankton). Zooplankton composition changed significantly from the beginning until the end of the experiment; cyclopoid nauplii and rotifers were notoriously dominant at t0, whereas 10 days later the community showed a more equitable proportion of cyclopoids, calanoids, nauplii, cladocerans and rotifers. © 2006 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Descripción: We examined the zooplankton abundance and composition of Laguna Grande, a floodplain wetland of the Lower Paraná Basin (Argentina), during an extraordinary drought-flood cycle that affected both the environment and the biological conditions of the lake. Low waters were characterised by remarkably high conductivities and pH values, and high phytoplankton and bacterioplankton abundances with cyanobacterial blooms, while high waters showed opposite features. In relation to zooplankton, the mean abundances of all the taxonomic groups (rotifers, cladocerans, copepods, ciliates, and heterotrophic nanoflagellates) were slightly higher at low waters. Major changes were observed in the specific composition of metazooplankton: the euryhaline species assemblage that dominated in the dry warm period was replaced by several oligohaline littoral and planktonic species characteristic of the Paraná River Basin, when the water level rose. Mean species richness values at high waters doubled those of low waters and were directly correlated to water depth. Most of the rotifers of the genus Brachionus and the cladoceran Moina micrura switched from parthenogenetic to sexual reproduction during low waters, as a response to a harsh environment and crowding. We suggest that the main changes in the environmental conditions in this eutrophic floodplain lake are driven by the hydrology, which regulates the zooplankton succession. The herein described shifts in the zooplankton structure and dynamics of Laguna Grande over an extraordinary drought-flood cycle contribute to the understanding of the processes that might occur under the scenarios predicted by climate change models. © 2011 Elsevier GmbH.

Descripción: This is the first study on diatom spatial patterns in relation to major oceanographic features along a megascale transect in the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean and provides a comparison with diatom distribution in surface sediments. Absolute abundances of diatoms, silicoflagellates and dinoflagellates (>10-μm fraction) were assessed in 80 bottle samples from 5 to 50 m, retrieved in November 1993 at 20 stations (30-61°S) along 53°W. Siliceous phytoplankton were scarce in the northern half of the transect and in the south of 57°S (100-150 cells L-1), with a strong peak in the vicinity of the Polar Front (∼200 000 cells L-1), whereas dinoflagellates were more abundant at the northern stations (up to 24 000 cells L-1). In the south of 50°S phytoplanktonic cell densities were loosely (but significantly, r = 0.54, P < 0.01) associated with chlorophyll a, whereas in the north of this latitude, this relationship disappeared (r = 0.018, P > 0.1). In total, 191 diatoms and 4 silicoflagellates were recorded. Changes in diatom assemblage compositions along the transect allowed identification of five discrete areas: Subtropical (29°S), Northern Transitional (34-41°S), Southern Transitional (43-48°S), Subantarctic (49-54°S) and Antarctic (55-59°S), each characterized by a set of typical species. Diversity changed little with latitude, but numbers of species were higher in the north of 40°S. Comparison of diatom assemblage makeup in the plankton and in the surface sediments shows very strong disagreements, whereby cold water species are very significantly over-represented in the sedimentary record, suggesting enhanced preservation and strong subsurface equatorward advection of the cold water taxa. © The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.