Pigments, size, and distributions of Synechococcus in the North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans

Abstract

Dual-beam flow cytometry was used to analyze the distribution and optical characteristics of Synechococcus in the North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The depth range over which Synechococcus cells were abundant was related to the depth of the nitrite maximum and the chlorophyll maximum, but was not significantly correlated with the depth of the surface isothermal layer. Dual-beam analysis of chromophore pigment types revealed that the majority of the populations were of the high-urobilin type; low-urobilin types, similar to the isolate WH7803, were found only in coastal waters where they almost always co-occurred with high-urobilin strains. Phycoerythrin fluorescence intensity per cell increased dramatically with depth in the lower euphotic zone at all stations; at some open-ocean stations, very deep cells were as much as 100 times brighter than those at the surface. The maximal fluorescence intensity per cell was about the same at the coastal and oceanic stations, and the depth of maximal fluorescence was closely related to the depth of the nitrite maximum. At most stations, fluorescence per cell was constant throughout the mixed layer, but at some open-ocean stations it decreased continuously to the surface. The latter pattern suggests that mixing rates in these areas are slow relative to the abilities of the cells to photoacclimate. A distinct diel pattern in forward-angle light scatter was observed in cells in the mixed layer over vast regions, which we hypothesize to be coupled to growth of the cells during daylight hours.