Prokaryote and eukaryote abundance in phytodetrital aggregates (PA), fecal aggregates (FA), and the ambient seawater from samples collected during R/V Atlantic Explorer cruises AE1718 and AE1809 in 2017 and 2018 at BATS in Bermuda (NCEI Accession 0278699)

This dataset contains biological and survey - biological data collected on R/V Atlantic Explorer during cruises AE1718 and AE1809 from 2017-09-12 to 2018-03-15. These data include abundance and depth. The instruments used to collect these data include Automated DNA Sequencer, CTD Sea-Bird SBE 911plus, Microscope - Optical, and Niskin bottle. These data were collected by Susanne Neuer of Arizona State University as part of the "Aggregation of Marine Picoplankton (Marine Plankton Aggregation)" project. The Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO) submitted these data to NCEI on 2021-11-02.

The following is the text of the dataset description provided by BCO-DMO:

Acquisition Description:
Particles were collected on the monthly sampling cruises affiliated with the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) in fall 2017 (AE1718) and spring 2018 (AE1809) using surface-tethered Particle Interceptor Traps deployed at 150 m, 200 m, and 300 m depths for 72 h (Table 1). To collect particles with minimal alteration to their structure, traps containing a polycarbonate jar with 100 mL of 12% polyacrylamide gel were deployed at each depth. Seawater was collected from the surface, deep chlorophyll maximum (DCM) or 20 m above the mixed layer depth (MLD), and at every trap deployment depth using 12 L Niskin bottles mounted on a CTD rosette.

8 particles were categorized and manually picked based on their morphology using characteristics described in the literature (phytodetrital aggregates or fecal aggregates), washed three times using ultrapure nuclease-free distilled water (Invitrogen), and pooled in Eppendorf LoBind tubes stored at -80C. For DNA analysis of the microbial community in the ambient seawater, 2 L from each sampling depth was filtered onto GF/F and stored in Eppendorf LoBind tubes at -80C.

DNA from the pooled particles and GF/F were extracted using a DNeasy Blood and Tissue extraction kit, and bacterial and eukaryotic paired-end V4 amplicon sequences were acquired via an Illumina MiSeq platform.

Problem report:
As a result of low DNA yield, five samples of pooled aggregates failed PCR amplification attempts using eukaryotic (18S, V4) primers: fall 200m and 300m phytodetrital aggregates, fall 200m fecal aggregates, spring 300m phytodetrital aggregates, and spring 300m fecal aggregates.

Supplemental file "16S_Control-Blanks_Species_Raw.csv" contains the taxa excluded from downstream analyses.