Abstract
The Amazon River discharges more than 200,000 m3 s-1 into the Western
Tropical Atlantic Ocean from May to June. The low salinity surface plume
extends more than 1800 km from the mouth and covers an area greater than
1 million square kilometers. We hypothesize that the plume exhibits
distinct microbial community assemblages driven by plume age, nutrient
supply, and light availability. We collected samples for nutrients and
flow-cytometry measurements to investigate the spatial variability of
the cyanobacteria Prochlorococcus spp. and Synechococcus spp.,
picoeukaryotes, and heterotrophic bacteria. Overall the surface salinity
of the water we sampled ranged from 15.5 ppt at the southernmost station
to 36.3 ppt in the open ocean station. The surface nitrate and soluble
reactive phosphorus concentrations ranged from below detection limit to
3.3 µM and 2 µM, respectively. Generally, in the freshest surface plume
waters (15-28 ppt) we found the highest abundances of Synechococcus
spp., picoeukaryotes, and hetrotrophic bacteria with little or no
Prochlorococcus spp. In the transition of surface salinities from 28 ppt
to 32 ppt, a population of Prochlorococcus spp. began to form below the
surface plume while Synechococcus spp. abundances at the surface
remained unchanged and picoeukaryotes, and heterotrophic bacteria
abundances decreased. As the surface salinity climbed over 32 ppt, the
Prochlorococcus spp. abundance was uniformly high throughout the
euphotic zone. On the other hand, as surface salinities increased over
32 ppt Synechococcus spp. abundances at the surface gradually decreased,
while picoeukaryote and hetrotrophic bacterial abundances remained
constant. We will discuss changes in the microbial community composition
as a function of nutrient and light availability, as well as plume age
in the Amazon Plume-Ocean continuum in both surface and deep chlorophyll
maximum assemblages.