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Influence of the Changjiang River Flood on Synechococcus Ecology in the Surface Waters of the East China Sea

  • Environmental Microbiology
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Abstract

Synechococcus spp. have been suggested as the primary component of picophytoplankton in the East China Sea (ECS). However, the influences of sudden environmental changes on Synechococcus assemblage composition have not yet been investigated. In the summer of 2010, a disastrous flood occurred in the Changjiang River basin. To improve our understanding of how this flood affected the Synechococcus ecology on the ECS surface, their assemblages and distributions have been described using two-laser flow cytometry and phylogenetic analysis of the phycocyanin operon. During the nonflooding summer of 2009, phycoerythrin-rich (PE-rich) Synechococcus thrived near the outer boundary of the Changjiang River diluted water (CDW) coverage, while phycocyanin-rich (PC-rich) Synechococcus predominated inside the turbid CDW with a transparency of <80 %. During the 2010 summer, flooding expanded the CDW coverage area to over half of the ECS. PE-rich cells showed a homogeneous distribution and a decline in abundance, while the spatial pattern of the PC-rich Synechococcus resembled the pattern from 2009. Based on the phycocyanin operon phylogeny, the Synechococcus in the ECS were categorized into five groups, ECS-1 to ECS-4 and ECS-PE, comprising a total of 19 operational taxonomic units. In the summer of 2009, ECS-2 dominated in the coast, and the ECS-3 and ECS-PE clades prevailed in the offshore waters. However, during the summer of 2010, ECS-4 and ECS-PE became the dominant strains. The injection of abundant anthropogenic pollutants and the enhancement of transparency within the CDW expansion area appear to be the factors needed to transiently alter the ecology of Synechococcus after flooding.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the captain and crew of the research vessel Ocean Researcher I for their assistance. We are also grateful for the helpful suggestions and comments from the chief editor, Dr. K. E. Nelson, and three anonymous reviewers. This study was supported by the National Science Council of Taiwan (NSC99-2611-M-019-014-MY2 and NSC101-2611-M-019-014) and the Center of Excellence for the Oceans of National Taiwan Ocean University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Marine Environmental Chemistry and Ecology, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, 20224, Taiwan, Republic of China

    Chih-Ching Chung & Gwo-Ching Gong

  2. Center of Excellence for the Oceans, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, 20224, Taiwan, Republic of China

    Chih-Ching Chung & Gwo-Ching Gong

  3. Institute of Marine Biology, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, 20224, Taiwan, Republic of China

    Chin-Yi Huang

  4. Taiwan Ocean Research Institute, National Applied Research Laboratories, Kaosiung, 85243, Taiwan, Republic of China

    Gwo-Ching Gong

  5. Institute of Environmental Biology and Fishery Science, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, 20224, Taiwan, Republic of China

    Yun-Chi Lin

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  1. Chih-Ching Chung
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Correspondence to Chih-Ching Chung.

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Chung, CC., Huang, CY., Gong, GC. et al. Influence of the Changjiang River Flood on Synechococcus Ecology in the Surface Waters of the East China Sea. Microb Ecol 67, 273–285 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-013-0299-8

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