Parasitic infections by Group II Syndiniales target selected dinoflagellate host populations within diverse protist assemblages in a model coastal pond.

ABSTRACT

Protists are integral to marine food webs and biogeochemical cycles; however, there is a paucity of data describing specific ecological niches for some of the most abundant taxa in marker gene libraries. Syndiniales are one such group, often representing the majority of sequence reads recovered from picoplankton samples across the global ocean. However, the prevalence and impacts of syndinian parasitism in marine environments remain unclear. We began to address these critical knowledge gaps by generating a high-resolution time series (March-October 2018) in a productive coastal pond. Seasonal shifts in protist populations, including parasitic Syndiniales, were documented during periods of higher primary productivity and increased summer temperature-driven stratification. Elevated concentrations of infected hosts and free-living parasite spores occurred at nearly monthly intervals in July, August, and September. We suggest intensifying stratification during this period correlated with the increased prevalence of dinoflagellates that were parasitized by Group II Syndiniales. Infections in some protist populations were comparable to previously reported large single-taxon dinoflagellate blooms. Infection dynamics in Salt Pond demonstrated the propagation of syndinian parasites through mixed protist assemblages and highlighted patterns of host/parasite interactions that better reflect many other marine environments where single taxon blooms are uncommon.