Population dynamics of phytoplankton, heterotrophic bacteria, and viruses during the spring bloom in the western subarctic Pacific

Abstract

We characterized the community composition of phytoplankton in the western subarctic Pacific from the pre-bloom to the decline phase of the spring bloom with special reference to decreases in the silicic acid concentration in surface waters as an index for diatom bloom development. Furthermore, responses of heterotrophic bacteria and viruses to the spring bloom were also concomitantly investigated. Under pre-bloom conditions when nutrients were abundant but the surface mixed layer depth was relatively deep, chlorophyll (Chl) a concentrations were consistently low and green algae (chlorophytes and prasinophytes), cryptophytes, and diatoms were predominant in the phytoplankton assemblages as estimated by algal pigment signatures. Together with the shallowing of the mixed layer depth and the decrease in silicic acid concentration, diatoms bloomed remarkably in the Oyashio region, though the magnitude of the bloom in the Kuroshio–Oyashio transition (hereafter Transition) region was relatively small. A total of 77 diatom species were identified, with the bloom-forming diatoms mainly consisting of Thalassiosira, Chaetoceros, and Fragilariopsis species. It has become evident that the carotenoid fucoxanthin can serve as a strong indicator of the diatom carbon biomass during the spring diatom bloom. Differences in the species richness of diatoms among stations generally enabled us to separate the Oyashio bloom stations from the Transition and the Oyashio pre-bloom stations. Relatively high values of the Shannon–Wiener index for the diatom species were also maintained during the Oyashio bloom, indicating that a wide variety of species then shared dominance. In the decline phase of the Oyashio bloom when surface nutrient concentrations decreased, senescent diatom cells increased, as inferred from the levels of chlorophyllide a. Although the cell density of heterotrophic bacteria changed little with the development of the diatom bloom, viral abundance increased toward the end of the bloom, suggesting an increased likelihood of mortality among organisms including diatoms resulting from viral infection. This is the first report on the microbial trophodynamics, including viruses, during the spring diatom bloom in the western subarctic Pacific.