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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Aquatic Microbiology
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1443533

Distinct water mass between inside and outside eddy drive changes in prokaryotic growth and mortality in the tropical Pacific Ocean

Provisionally accepted
Patrichka Chen Wei Yi Patrichka Chen Wei Yi 1,2Madeline Olivia Madeline Olivia 1,2Gwo-Ching Gong Gwo-Ching Gong 1,3Sen Jan Sen Jan 4Tung-Yuan Ho Tung-Yuan Ho 5Lou St Laurent Lou St Laurent 6An-Yi Tsai An-Yi Tsai 1,2,3*
  • 1 National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan
  • 2 Doctoral degree program in Ocean Resource and Environmental Changes, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan
  • 3 Center of Excellence for Oceans, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan
  • 4 Institute of Oceanography, College of Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 5 Research Center for Environmental Changes, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 6 Applied Physics Laboratory, Environmental and Information Systems, University of Washington, Seattle, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Throughout the western tropical Pacific Ocean, eddies and currents play an important role in biogeochemical cycling. Many studies have investigated the effects of hydrography on vertical patterns of picophytoplankton and heterotrophic bacterial abundance in mesoscale eddies. There is a lack of field observations to determine what impact dynamic hydrological systems of eddies have on prokaryotic community activity (growth and mortality rates). An objective of this study was to examine how anticyclonic eddies influence picoplankton abundance and activity (growth and mortality rates). To meet this purpose, heterotrophic bacterial and picophytoplankton growth and mortality rates were examined by modified dilution experiments conducted at the surface, deep chlorophyll maximum (DCM), and 200 m depth outside (OE) and inside of warm eddies core (EC) in the west Pacific Ocean. A high heterotrophic bacterial grazing rate was found in the EC region in the present study.Furthermore, the picophytoplankton grazing rate in EC was frequently greater than the grazing rate in OE. Furthermore, the higher grazing rates in the EC region cause a lower proportion of viral lysis to account for heterotrophic bacteria and picophytoplankton mortality. The results of our experiments suggest that downwelling in EC might increase picophytoplankton growth and grazing rates, increasing the carbon sink in the warm eddy and potentially increasing ocean carbon storage.

    Keywords: Pacific Ocean, Anticyclonic eddies, Growth, mortality rates, viral lysis

    Received: 04 Jun 2024; Accepted: 05 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Wei Yi, Olivia, Gong, Jan, Ho, St Laurent and Tsai. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: An-Yi Tsai, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan

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