Phytoplankton clone library matches collected from the R/V Atlantic Explorer and R/V Oceanus cruises along the Bermuda Atlantic Time Series Station (BATS) from 2008-2010 (Plankton particle flux project) (NCEI Accession 0277334)

Acquisition Description:
Water column samples were collected at BATS during the 2009 and 2010 winter bloom periods from the upper 150 m in Niskin bottles attached to a sampling rosette. Particle interceptor traps (PITs) with both fixed (2% formalin final concentration, deployment time 72 hr) and unfixed (deployment time 24 hr) collection tubes were deployed at 150 m depth in close proximity to the station and during the same time period as the water column collection in order to collect sinking particles below the euphotic zone. Clone libraries were constructed from 2-L samples collected at two depths in the euphotic zone, one close to the surface (10 m) and one from either the bottom of the euphotic zone if the water column was well mixed (most stations sampled; around 120-130 m) or from the chlorophyll maximum if one was present (around 80 m; samples from March 24 and April 24, 2010). Libraries were also constructed from sinking particles collected in two tubes of the PITs from the trap array located at 150 m depth. Unfixed traps were selected unless the sample was unavailable or prior results using DGGE indicated that the fixed trap would be more suitable due to occurrence of fungi and metazoans in the unfixed traps. DNA was extracted from these samples and a region of the 18S ribosomal RNA gene was amplified by PCR using eukaryotic primers. Samples from selected dates and depths were cloned and sequenced and broad taxonomic groups were determined for each sequence using their closest similarity match from BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool, http://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ ).