Microeukaryote metabolism across the western North Atlantic Ocean revealed through autonomous underwater profiling

Abstract

Microeukaryotes are key contributors to marine carbon cycling. Their physiology, ecology, and interactions with the chemical environment are poorly understood in offshore ecosystems, and especially in the deep ocean. Using the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Clio, microbial communities along a 1050 km transect in the western North Atlantic Ocean were surveyed at 10–200 m vertical depth increments to capture metabolic signatures spanning oligotrophic, continental margin, and productive coastal ecosystems. Microeukaryotes were examined using a paired metatranscriptomic and metaproteomic approach. Here we show a diverse surface assemblage consisting of stramenopiles, dinoflagellates and ciliates represented in both the transcript and protein fractions, with foraminifera, radiolaria, picozoa, and discoba proteins enriched at >200 m, and fungal proteins emerging in waters >3000 m. In the broad microeukaryote community, nitrogen stress biomarkers were found at coastal sites, with phosphorus stress biomarkers offshore. This multi-omics dataset broadens our understanding of how microeukaryotic taxa and their functional processes are structured along environmental gradients of temperature, light, and nutrients.

Using an autonomous underwater vehicle, this study presents an integrated biogeochemical and multiomic analysis of microbial eukaryotes from the North Atlantic Ocean. The work highlights diverse communities that shift through depth zones, with signatures of nutrient biomarkers changing across a coastal-offshore spatial gradient.