Patterns of rare and abundant marine microbial eukaryotes.

• publication
• 08-04-2014

Logares R, Audic S, Bass D, Bittner L, Boutte C, Christen R, Claverie JM, Decelle J, Dolan JR, Dunthorn M, Edvardsen B, Gobet A, Kooistra WH, Mahé F, Not F, Ogata H, Pawlowski J, Pernice MC, Romac S, Shalchian-Tabrizi K, Simon N, Stoeck T, Santini S, Siano R, Wincker P, Zingone A, Richards TA, de Vargas C, Massana R. Curr. Biol. 2014 Apr;24(8):813-21. S0960-9822(14)00218-8. 10.1016/j.cub.2014.02.050.

Biological communities are normally composed of a few abundant and many rare species. This pattern is particularly prominent in microbial communities, in which most constituent taxa are usually extremely rare. Although abundant and rare subcommunities may present intrinsic characteristics that could be crucial for understanding community dynamics and ecosystem functioning, microbiologists normally do not differentiate between them. Here, we investigate abundant and rare subcommunities of marine microbial eukaryotes, a crucial group of organisms that remains among the least-explored biodiversity components of the biosphere. We surveyed surface waters of six separate coastal locations in Europe, independently considering the picoplankton, nanoplankton, and microplankton/mesoplankton organismal size fractions.

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