Table of Contents

• Coverage
• Dataset Description
  • Methods & Sampling
  • Data Processing Description
• Data Files
• Parameters
• Instruments
• Deployments
• Project Information
• Funding

Cruise track from R/V Atlantic Explorer AE1103 in the BATS site from March 2011.

Control point navigation was obtained from the R2R catalog: http://www.rvdata.us/catalog/AE1103

BCO-DMO Processing Notes
- Data obtained from R2R site
- Added parameter header 

(Adapted from the NSF award abstract)

The premise of this project is that stratified bacterioplankton clades engage in specialized biogeochemical activities that can be identified by integrated oceanographic and microbiological approaches. Specifically, the objective of this project is to assess if the mesopelagic microbial community rely on diagenetically altered organic matter and subcellular fragments that are produced by microbial processes in the euphotic zone and delivered into the upper mesopelagic by sinking or mixing. In past efforts this microbial observatory had greater success cultivating members of the euphotic zone microbial community, and revealed an unanticipated growth requirement for reduced sulfur compounds in alphaproteobacteria of the SAR11 clade. Genomic information showed that intense competition for substrates imposes trade-offs on bacterioplankton - there are regions of N dimensional nutrient space where specialists win. We postulate that specific growth requirements may explain some the regular spatial and temporal patterns that have been observed in upper mesopelagic bacterioplankton communities, and the difficulties of culturing some of these organisms.

The specific objectives of this project are: 1) to produce 13C and 15N labeled subcellular (e.g., soluble, cell wall, and membrane) and DOM fractions from photosynthetic plankton cultures and use stable isotope probing to identify specific clades in the surface and upper mesopelagic microbial community that assimilate fractions of varying composition and lability. 2) to use fluorescence in situ hybridization approaches to monitor temporal and spatial variability of specific microbial populations identified from the SIP and HTC experiments. To increase resolution we will use CARD-FISH protocols. 3) to measure the proteomes of bacterioplankton communities to identify highly translated genes in the surface layer and upper mesopelagic, and community responses to seasonal nutrient limitation. 4) and, to cultivate these organisms via high throughput culturing (HTC) by pursuing the hypothesis that they require specific nutrient factors and/or diagenetically altered organic substrates. Complete genome sequences from key organisms will be sought and used as queries to study patterns of natural variation in genes and populations that have been associated with biogeochemically important functions.