The spatial patterns of aerobic anoxygenic phototrophs abundances were investigated, for the first time, in the Adriatic Sea. Also, the spatial patterns of the whole picoplankton community as well as the environmental factors that potentially influence these patterns were highlighted. AAP abundances was in average 66.9 ± 66.8 × 103 cell mL-1, and their proportion in total bacteria was 7.3 ± 4.3%. These values are in the upper range of AAP abundances observed in marine environments. Multivariate analyses proved that environmental factors influenced the picoplankton community interdependently. Chl a was the main driving factor for the picoplankton community, accounting for 33.3% of picoplankton community variance, followed by NO2- (17.9% of variance explained) and temperature (14.2% of variance explained). Chl a showed stronger correlation with AAPs, non-pigmented bacteria and Picoeucaryotes than with cyanobacteria. Abundance of cyanobacteria was stronger correlated to salinity and the N:P ratio than to nutrient concentrations.

Laboratory of Anoxygenic Phototrophs Institute of Microbiology CAS 379 81 Trebon Czech Republic

Laboratory of Chemical Oceanography and Sedimentology of the Sea Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries Šetalište 1 Meštrovića 63 Split Croatia

Laboratory of Marine Microbiology Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries Šetalište 1 Meštrovića 63 Split Croatia

Laboratory of Plankton and Shellfish Toxicity Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries Šetalište 1 Meštrovića 63 Split Croatia

References provided by Crossref.org

Ecology of aerobic anoxygenic phototrophs on a fine-scale taxonomic resolution in Adriatic Sea unravelled by unsupervised neural network

Growth and mortality of aerobic anoxygenic phototrophs in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre