Variation in light and temperature can influence the genetic diversity and structure of marine plankton communities. While open-ocean plankton communities receive much scientific attention, little is known about how environmental variation affects plankton communities on tropical coral reefs. Here, we characterize eukaryotic plankton communities on coral reefs across the Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panamá. Temperature loggers were deployed, and midday light levels were measured to quantify environmental differences across reefs at four inshore and four offshore sites (Inshore = Punta Donato, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) Point, Cristobal, Punta Laurel and Offshore = Drago Mar, Bastimentos North, Bastimentos South, and Cayo de Agua). Triplicate vertical plankton tows were collected midday, and high-throughput 18S ribosomal DNA metabarcoding was leveraged to investigate the relationship between eukaryotic plankton community structure and inshore/offshore reef environments. Plankton communities from STRI Point were additionally characterized in the morning (~ 08:00), midday (~ 12:00), and late-day (~ 16:00) to quantify temporal variation within a single site. We found that inshore reefs experienced higher average seawater temperatures, while offshore sites offered higher light levels, presumably associated with reduced water turbidity on reefs further from shore. These significant environmental differences between inshore and offshore reefs corresponded with overall plankton community differences. We also found that temporal variation played a structuring role within these plankton communities, and conclude that time of community sampling is an important consideration for future studies. Follow-up studies focusing on more intensive sampling efforts across space and time, coupled with techniques that can detect more subtle genetic differences between and within communities will more fully capture plankton dynamics in this region and beyond.

中文翻译：

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巴拿马博卡斯德尔托罗群岛珊瑚礁环境中的真核浮游生物群落

光和温度的变化会影响海洋浮游生物群落的遗传多样性和结构。虽然公海浮游生物群落受到了很多科学关注，但人们对环境变化如何影响热带珊瑚礁上的浮游生物群落知之甚少。在这里，我们描述了巴拿马博卡斯德尔托罗群岛珊瑚礁上的真核浮游生物群落。部署了温度记录仪，并测量了中午的光照水平，以量化四个近海和四个近海地点（近海 = Punta Donato、史密森尼热带研究所 (STRI) Point、Cristobal、Punta Laurel 和 Offshore = Drago Mar、Bastimentos）的珊瑚礁环境差异北部、Bastimentos 南部和 Cayo de Agua）。中午收集了三次垂直浮游生物拖带，利用高通量 18S 核糖体 DNA 宏条形码研究真核浮游生物群落结构与近海/近海珊瑚礁环境之间的关系。来自 STRI Point 的浮游生物群落在早上 (~ 08:00)、中午 (~ 12:00) 和晚间 (~ 16:00) 进行了额外的表征，以量化单个站点内的时间变化。我们发现近海珊瑚礁经历了更高的平均海水温度，而近海地点提供了更高的光照水平，这可能与远离海岸的珊瑚礁的水浊度降低有关。近海和近海珊瑚礁之间的这些显着环境差异与整体浮游生物群落差异相对应。我们还发现时间变化在这些浮游生物群落中发挥了结构作用，并得出结论，社区抽样的时间是未来研究的重要考虑因素。后续研究侧重于跨空间和时间进行更密集的采样工作，再加上可以检测社区之间和内部更细微遗传差异的技术，将更全面地捕捉该地区及其他地区的浮游生物动态。