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Science 24 March 2006:
Vol. 311. no. 5768, pp. 1737 - 1740
DOI: 10.1126/science.1118052
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Research Articles

Niche Partitioning Among Prochlorococcus Ecotypes Along Ocean-Scale Environmental Gradients

Zackary I. Johnson,1,2* Erik R. Zinser,1,3* Allison Coe,1 Nathan P. McNulty,1 E. Malcolm S. Woodward,4 Sallie W. Chisholm1{dagger}

Prochlorococcus is the numerically dominant phytoplankter in the oligotrophic oceans, accounting for up to half of the photosynthetic biomass and production in some regions. Here, we describe how the abundance of six known ecotypes, which have small subunit ribosomal RNA sequences that differ by less than 3%, changed along local and basin-wide environmental gradients in the Atlantic Ocean. Temperature was significantly correlated with shifts in ecotype abundance, and laboratory experiments confirmed different temperature optima and tolerance ranges for cultured strains. Light, nutrients, and competitor abundances also appeared to play a role in shaping different distributions.

1 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 15 Vassar Street 48-419, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
2 Department of Oceanography, University of Hawaii, 1000 Pope Road MSB614, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA.
3 Department of Microbiology, University of Tennessee, M409 WLS, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA.
4 Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Prospect Place, The Hoe, Plymouth PL1 3DH, UK.

* These authors contributed equally to this work.

{dagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: chisholm{at}mit.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)