Batta-Lona Paola G.

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Batta-Lona
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Paola G.
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  • Article
    COI metabarcoding of zooplankton species diversity for time-series monitoring of the NW Atlantic continental shelf
    (Frontiers Media, 2022-04-22) Bucklin, Ann ; Batta-Lona, Paola G. ; Questel, Jennifer M. ; Wiebe, Peter ; Richardson, David E. ; Copley, Nancy ; O'Brien, Todd D.
    Marine zooplankton are rapid-responders and useful indicators of environmental variability and climate change impacts on pelagic ecosystems on time scales ranging from seasons to years to decades. The systematic complexity and taxonomic diversity of the zooplankton assemblage has presented significant challenges for routine morphological (microscopic) identification of species in samples collected during ecosystem monitoring and fisheries management surveys. Metabarcoding using the mitochondrial Cytochrome Oxidase I (COI) gene region has shown promise for detecting and identifying species of some – but not all – taxonomic groups in samples of marine zooplankton. This study examined species diversity of zooplankton on the Northwest Atlantic Continental Shelf using 27 samples collected in 2002-2012 from the Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank, and Mid-Atlantic Bight during Ecosystem Monitoring (EcoMon) Surveys by the NOAA NMFS Northeast Fisheries Science Center. COI metabarcodes were identified using the MetaZooGene Barcode Atlas and Database (https://metazoogene.org/MZGdb) specific to the North Atlantic Ocean. A total of 181 species across 23 taxonomic groups were detected, including a number of sibling and cryptic species that were not discriminated by morphological taxonomic analysis of EcoMon samples. In all, 67 species of 15 taxonomic groups had ≥ 50 COI sequences; 23 species had >1,000 COI sequences. Comparative analysis of molecular and morphological data showed significant correlations between COI sequence numbers and microscopic counts for 5 of 6 taxonomic groups and for 5 of 7 species with >1,000 COI sequences for which both types of data were available. Multivariate statistical analysis showed clustering of samples within each region based on both COI sequence numbers and EcoMon counts, although differences among the three regions were not statistically significant. The results demonstrate the power and potential of COI metabarcoding for identification of species of metazoan zooplankton in the context of ecosystem monitoring.
  • Article
    Transition from stromatolite to thrombolite fabric: Potential role for reticulopodial protists in lake microbialites of a Proterozoic ecosystem analog
    (Frontiers Media, 2023-10-29) Bernhard, Joan M. ; Fisher, Luke A. ; Murphy, Quinne ; Sen, Leena ; Yeh, Heidi D. ; Louyakis, Artemis ; Gomaa, Fatma ; Reilly, Megan ; Batta-Lona, Paola G. ; Bucklin, Ann ; Le Roux, Veronique ; Visscher, Pieter T.
    Prior observations suggest that foraminiferan protists use their reticulopodia (anastomosing pseudopodia) to alter sediment fabric by disrupting laminations of subtidal marine stromatolites, erasing the layered structures in an experimental setting. Because microbialites and foraminifera are found in non-marine settings, we hypothesized that foraminifera living in lakes could also disrupt layered microbialite fabric. With this aim and using a variety of multidisciplinary approaches, we conducted field surveys and an experiment on microbialites from Green Lake (GL; Fayetteville, New York State, United States), which has been studied as a Proterozoic ecosystem analog. The lake is meromictic and alkaline, receiving calcium sulfate-rich water in the monimolimnion; it supports a well-developed carbonate platform that provides access to living and relict microbialites. The living microbialites grow from early spring to autumn, forming a laminated mat at their surface (top ~5 mm), but a clotted or massive structure exists at depth (> ~ 1 cm). We observed a morphotype of “naked” foraminiferan-like protist in samples from GL microbialites and sediments; thus, considered the possibility of freshwater foraminiferan impact on microbialite fabric. Results of an experiment that seeded the cultured freshwater foraminifer Haplomyxa saranae onto the GL microbialite surface indicates via micro-CT scanning and anisotropy analysis that the introduced foraminifer impacted uppermost microbialite layering (n = 3 cores); those cores with an added inhibitor lacked changes in anisotropy for two of those three cores. Thus, it remains plausible that the much smaller, relatively common, native free-form reticulate protist, which we identified as Chlamydomyxa labyrinthuloides, can disrupt microbialite fabrics on sub-millimeter scales. Our observations do not exclude contributions of other possible causal factors.