2018 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Study of plankton community structure by environmental DNA metabarcoding under red soil pollution
| Project/Area Number |
18K18203
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| Research Institution | Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University |
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Principal Investigator |
アレス アンジェラ 沖縄科学技術大学院大学, 海洋生態物理学ユニット, 研究員 (30817549)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2018-04-01 – 2020-03-31
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| Keywords | plankton community / soil runoff / amplicon sequence / prokaryote community / coastal pollution |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The project entitled “Study of plankton community structure by environmental DNA metabarcoding under red soil pollution” aims to apply DNA-based identification of biodiversity (through DNA metabarcoding) as an approach to evaluate plankton community changes and to identify indicator species of RSP.
During this first year (FY2018) we concluded with all the experimental part of the project which included: i) Field sampling, by the collection of water samples for DNA and chemical -heavy metals and nutrients- analysis. These samples were collected along all the typhoon season in Okinawa (from June-October of 2018). The number of typhoons was especially high in Okinawa in 2018, so many samples were collected before and after big rain events happened; ii) Laboratory DNA extraction and sequenced analysis, DNA was successfully extracted and sequenced by using the DNA sequencing platform at OIST; iii) Iron and nutrient analysis -nitrogen, phosphate and silica- was determined by ICP-MS (in case of Fe) and a Segmented Flow Analyzer (in case of nutrients) and iv) Data analysis.
The results obtained until the date were presented in the international conference: ASLO Aquatic Sciences Meeting which was held in San Juan, Puerto Rico (24th of February to 1st of March of 2019) (https://www.aslo.org/page/aslo-2019-aquatic-sciences-meeting). I contributed with an Oral Presentation entitled: “Red Soil Pollution within coral reef ecosystems” within the session of “Community Structure” the 26th of February.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
After an intensive water sampling along the Okinawa typhoon season -which lasted from June to the end of October- and subsequent sample analysis, all the experimental part is done at this moment. We also presented our preliminary results in the ASLO conference -one of the most important conference in aquatic science- so an important feedback from other experts in the international community was gained.
After one year from the beginning of this project we could obtain insightful data that shows plankton responses under red soil pollution. As a summary we could experimentally demonstrate that the red soil runoff causes an influx of terrestrial prokaryotes and eukaryotes into the Okinawan coast, but this is rather a fast event since the microbial community returns to the pre-typhoon state after few hours to days. Regarding the physicochemical properties, these rapidily changed by increasing the silica content as well the turbidity and decreasing the salinity.
We are currently preparing a manuscript with these observations that is expected to be submitted within two months as a scientific publication.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
During this fiscal year FY2019, we have planned to conclude the manuscript we are currently preparing on our observations on prokaryote plankton community dynamics under red soil pollution within two months.
Due to the high amount of data collected during the past typhoon season we are currently working on a second manuscript. This second manuscript will validate our observations in DNA analysis with the Imaging FlowCytobot (IFCB) -an in-situ automated submersible imaging flow cytometer that generates images of particles in-flow, specially corresponding to phytoplankton-. Therefore, in this second study we will compare both approaches to identify biodiversity. At this moment, we already analysed all the DNA, also determined heavy metal and nutrient concentrations (as described in the first section) and we are currently working on the taxonomic identification from the images captured by the IFCB. To conclude this study we need to still work on the coorelation analysis and prepare the manuscript. It will be submitted before the end of FY 2019.
The results from this second manuscript will be presented in the international conference Ocean Science 2020 in February of 2020 in San Diego (US).
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| Causes of Carryover |
The results from this project will be presented in the international conference Ocean Science 2020 in February of 2020 in San Diego (US).
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