Case Study: LifeWatch Italy Phytoplankton VRE

LifeWatch Italy, the Italian node of LifeWatch ERIC, has promoted and stimulated the debate on the use of semantics in biodiversity data management. Actually, biodiversity and ecosystems data are very heterogeneous and need to be better managed to improve the actual scientific knowledge extracted, as well as to address the urgent societal challenges concerning environmental issues. LifeWatch Italy has realized the Phytoplankton Virtual Research Environment (hereafter Phytoplankton VRE), a collaborative working environment supporting researchers to address basic and applied studies on phytoplankton ecology. The Phytoplankton VRE provides the IT infrastructure to enable researchers to obtain, share and analyse phytoplankton data at a level of resolution from individual cells to whole assemblages. A semantic approach has been used to address data harmonisation, integration and discovery: an interdisciplinary team has developed a thesaurus on phytoplankton functional traits and linked its concepts to other existing conceptual schemas related to the specific domain

Interactive Effect of UVR and Phosphorus on the Coastal Phytoplankton Community of the Western Mediterranean Sea: Unravelling Eco- Physiological Mechanisms

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Prokaryotic picoplankton spatial distribution during summer in a haline front in the Balearic Sea, Western Mediterranean

In oligotrophic regions, picophytoplankton can play a key role in total carbon production and energy transfer. Since the mesoscale hydrographic variability can influence the resource availability and therefore the biological communities, here we studied the linkage between hydrography, resource supply, abundance, and biomass contribution of prokaryotic picoplankton in the south Balearic Sea during the stratified season. The sampling area covered the confluence of two different water masses, the fresher new Atlantic water, and the saltier resident Atlantic water. Our results showed higher Synechococcus abundances in the more oligotrophic new Atlantic water mass and suggest that the spatial patterns of prokaryotic picophytoplankton are dictated by the mesoscale processes in this region. The summer stratification condition separated clearly the surface mixed layer (ML) from the deep layer (DL); our results support different limiting factors for picophytoplankton in the two layers: nutrient and light availability in the ML and DL, respectively. We also obtained no significant difference in the Synechococcus biomass contribution to total autotrophic biomass within the water column, but higher contribution in the new Atlantic water mass. These results demonstrate the general importance of picophytoplankton as carbon producers in oligotrophic waters and particularly their variability as biomass source at the mesoscaleVersión del editor1,784