Co-existence of distinct Ostreococcus ecotypes at an oceanic front

Western boundary currents support high primary production and carbon export. Here, we performed a survey of photosynthetic picoeukaryotes in the North Pacific Ocean in four transects crossing the Kuroshio Front. Prasinophyte algae comprised 85% of 18S rRNA gene sequences for photosynthetic taxa in the <5 m size fraction. The picoplanktonic (<2 m) genera Micromonas and Ostreococcus comprised 30% and 51% of the total photosynthetic 18S rDNA sequences from five stations. Phylogenetic analysis showed that two Ostreococcus ecotypes, until now rarely found to co-occur, were both present in the majority of samples. Ostreococcus ecotype OI reached 6,830 +/- 343 gene copies mL(-1), while Ostreococcus ecotype OII reached 50,190 +/- 971 gene copies mL(-1) based on qPCR analysis of the 18S rRNA gene. These values are higher than in studies of other oceanographic regions by a factor of 10 for OII. The data suggest that meso- and finer-scale physical dynamics had a significant impact on the populations at the front, either by mingling ecotypes from different source regions at fine scales (approximate to 10s km) or by stimulating their growth through vertical nutrient injections. We investigate this hypothesis with an idealized diffusion-reaction model, and find that only a combination of mixing and positive net growth can explain the observed distributions and overlap of the two Ostreococcus ecotypes. Our field observations support larger-scale numerical ocean simulations that predict enhanced biodiversity at western boundary current fronts, and suggest a strategy for systematically testing that hypothesis.