Home > Explore Data & Reports > Quantifying nitrogen assimilation rates of individual phytoplankton species and plankton groups during harmful algal blooms via sorting flow cytometry

Citation:

Kang, Y., R.M. Kudela, and C.J. Gobler. 2017. Quantifying nitrogen assimilation rates of individual phytoplankton species and plankton groups during harmful algal blooms via sorting flow cytometry. Limnology and Oceanography Methods, 15(8):706-721. https://doi.org/10.1002/lom3.10193

Data/Report Type:

Sponsored Research

Description

While 15N-labeled nitrogen (N) compounds have been used to quantify N uptake rates by plankton communities for decades, accurately ascribing those rates to individual populations or species has been a challenge. Here, we apply sorting flow cytometry combined with species-specific immuno-detection of a harmful alga, Aureococcus anophagefferens, to contrast the nutritional ecology of this alga with co-occurring picoplankton (picoeukaryotes, cyanobacteria, heterotrophic bacteria) during brown tides. The method was iteratively refined to yield close agreement (85–101%) between plankton community 15N uptake quantified via traditional filtration and this novel sorting method. Sorting of plankton revealed that the ?15N values of A. anophagefferens and phycocyanin-containing cyanobacteria were more enriched (? 10‰) than the values of other picoeukaryotes and heterotrophic bacteria that decreased to?

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