Estimating taxonomic and functional structure along a tropical estuary: linking metabolic traits and aspects of ecosystem functioning.

Microbial life forms are among the most ubiquitous on Earth, yet many remain understudied in Caribbean estuaries. We report on the prokaryote community composition of the Urabá Estuary in the Colombian Caribbean using 16S rRNA gene-transcript sequencing. We also assessed potential functional diversity through 38 metabolic traits inferred from 16S rRNA gene data.

or : What Makes the Difference in Highly Stratified Fjords?

and which follows it seasonally, are the main producers of lipophilic toxins in temperate coastal waters, including Southern Chile. Strains of the two species differ in their toxin profiles and impacts on shellfish resources. is considered the major cause of diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP) outbreaks in Southern Chile, but there is uncertainty about the toxicity of and little information on microscale oceanographic conditions promoting their blooms.