Protists in hypoxic waters of Jinhae Bay and Masan Bay, Korea, based on metabarcoding analyses: emphasizing surviving dinoflagellates

Hypoxia can indeed impact the survival of protists, which play a crucial role in marine ecosystems. To better understand the protistan community structure and species that can thrive in hypoxic waters, we collected samples from both the surface and bottom waters during the hypoxic period in Jinhae and Masan Bays and the non-hypoxic period in Jinhae Bay. Subsequently, we utilized metabarcoding techniques to identify the protistan species. During hypoxia, with dissolved oxygen concentrations of 0.8 mg L-1 in Jinhae Bay and 1.8 mg L-1 in Masan Bay within the bottom waters, the phylum Dinoflagellata exhibited the highest amplicon sequence variants richness among the identified protist phyla. Following the Dinoflagellata, Ochrophyta and Ciliophora also displayed notable presence. In hypoxic waters of Jinhae and Masan Bays, we identified a total of 36 dinoflagellate species that exhibited various trophic modes. These included one autotrophic species, 14 mixotrophic species, 9 phototrophic species with undetermined trophic modes (either autotrophic or mixotrophic), 2 kleptoplastidic species, and 10 heterotrophic species. Furthermore, the hypoxic bottom water exhibited a greater number of heterotrophic dinoflagellate species compared to the non-hypoxic surface water within the same water column or the non-hypoxic bottom water. Therefore, feeding by mixotrophic and heterotrophic dinoflagellates may be partially responsible for their dominance in terms of the number of species surviving in hypoxic waters. This study not only introduces the initial documentation of 26 dinoflagellate species surviving in hypoxic conditions but also establishes a foundation for a more comprehensive understanding of the ecophysiology of dinoflagellates in hypoxic marine environments.