The site of this study, BATS (Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study), is located in the northwestern region of the Sargasso Sea, an oligotrophic ocean gyre. Gyres, which cover 70% of the ocean surface, are low in surface nutrients and productivity. At BATS, cool winter weather and large storms cause deep winter mixing of the water column, bringing nutrients to the surface that stimulate spring phytoplankton blooms, which are followed by summer lows in productivity. The natural seasonality of the BATS spring bloom is providing an opportunity for addressing questions about episodic productivity and biogeochemical processes that intercept and remineralize organic matter to carbon dioxide. The goal of this metagenomic study is to identify functional genes and biochemical pathways associated with eukarytotic phytoplankton and the microbial populations that remineralize organic carbon to carbon dioxide.
Metagenomic Analysis of the North Atlantic Spring Bloom
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