3.2.1. Case study 1
Decelle et al. (2018) have demonstrated, using the Tara Oceans
18S-V9 metabarcode dataset, that the dinoflagellate genusSymbiodinium well known for sustaining coral reefs
photosymbiosis, is ecologically and economically important in the open
ocean. The relative abundance of Symbiodiniaceae metabarcodes in this
study was high in tropical and sub-tropical waters, whilst reaching
undetectable levels at higher latitudes (Figure 1B in (Decelle et al.,
2018)), indicating an ecological preference for warm and oligotrophic
oceanic waters. We searched for Symbiodiniaceae as a taxon query in the
OBA “Community ecological analysis “ interface targeting theTara Oceans 18S-V9 metabarcode dataset. The resulting world map
(Figure 4A) and relative abundance versus latitude scatterplot (Figure
4B) confirm the strong bounding of Symbiodiniaceae under 40 degrees of
latitude as in (Decelle et al., 2018).