Arctic Marine Eukaryote Plankton Trophic Diversity Across Water Masses

Summer 2026 data from Nares Strait into Baffin Bay characterizes microbial eukaryotic plankton assemblages across four vertically stacked water masses. The dataset, created by Aurélie Labarre, is based on high-throughput sequencing of the 18S rRNA gene from two size fractions (0.22–3 and 3–50 μm). It captures the distribution of phototrophic, mixotrophic, and heterotrophic lineages, including rare and uncultivated taxa.

Use Cases

• Modeling the association between dominant trophic strategies and water mass origin based on the described hypothesis.
• Characterizing rare microbial eukaryotic taxa and their possible origins within distinct Arctic water masses.
• Investigating the vertical distribution of phototrophic lineages in deep waters, potentially from surface or sediment sources.
• Analyzing the reservoir of parasitic Syndinales in deep Atlantic waters as suggested by the distribution of core dinoflagellates.

Strengths

• Data is explicitly linked to four distinct, vertically stacked Arctic water masses, providing environmental context.
• Includes sequences from two size fractions (0.22–3 and 3–50 μm), allowing for size-based community analysis.
• Captures both common and rare taxa, including multiple uncultivated groups, as noted in the discussion.
• Released under a permissive CC-BY-4.0 license, facilitating reuse.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale modeling.
• The 786.9 KB file size indicates a relatively small dataset with limited scope.

Provenance

Source

figshare, author Aurélie Labarre.

Collection Method

High-throughput sequencing of the V4 region of the 18S rRNA gene from seawater samples.

Time Range

Summer (specific year not stated).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-08 05:56:49.

Geography

Arctic Ocean, from Nares Strait into Baffin Bay.