Dynamic changes in the composition of photosynthetic picoeukaryotes in the northwestern Pacific Ocean revealed by high-throughput tag sequencing of plastid 16S rRNA genes.

Photosynthetic picoeukaryotes (PPEs) are major oceanic primary producers. However, the diversity of such communities remains poorly understood, especially in the northwestern (NW) Pacific. We investigated the abundance and diversity of PPEs, and recorded environmental variables, along a transect from the coast to the open Pacific Ocean.