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Diversity of microbial eukaryotes in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard

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Abstract

Microbial eukaryote diversity was assessed in Arctic Kongsfjorden (Svalbard), by constructing SSU rDNA clone libraries. Samples were collected from different depths at the outer basin in summer (2006), plus an additional one glacial and one sediment sample. The libraries displayed diversity based on 284 full-length sequences. Four main phyla, namely, Alveolates, Stramenopiles, Cercozoans, and Metazoans were often screened in this fjord. Alveolate occupied the highest percentage of taxa in the library of surface sea water, besides the Metazoan-related clones. Moreover, dinoflagellates, diatoms, and pico-Prasinophytes were detected as prevalent phytoplankton through the analysis of libraries. Questions related to the quantity of these phytoplankton and their roles in the microbial food loop arose from an ecological viewpoint.

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Acknowledgments

This research is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 40806073, 40876097); the Youth Innovation foundation of Polar research Institute of China (JDQ200701); Polar Strategic Research Foundation of China; Youth Marine Science Foundation (2008128), SOA; and Resource-sharing Platform of Polar Samples (2005DKA21406). We acknowledge the logistic support from Kingsbay AS, Svalbard. We also appreciate the technical assistance from Q. Luo, YY. Lou, CJ. Zhu, HB. Teng, and CY. Guo. We also thank the reviewers for their advices.

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  1. SOA Key Laboratory for Polar Science, Polar Research Institute of China, Shanghai, 200136, China

    Wei Luo, Huirong Li, Minghong Cai & Jianfeng He

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  1. Wei Luo
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Correspondence to Wei Luo.

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Luo, W., Li, H., Cai, M. et al. Diversity of microbial eukaryotes in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard. Hydrobiologia 636, 233–248 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-009-9953-z

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