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In the marine environment, the persistence and abundance of Vibrio are related to a number of environmental parameters. The influence of the different environmental variables in determining the Vibrio occurrence could be different in the specific geographic areas around the world. Moreover, oceanographic parameters are generally interdependent and should not be considered separately when their influence on bacterial presence and concentration is tested. In this study, an integrated approach was used to identify key parameters determining the abundance of Vibrio spp in marine samples from the Venetian Lagoon in Italy, which is an important area for fish farming and tourism. Multivariate techniques have been adopted to analyze the dataset: using PCA, it was shown that a relatively high proportion of the total variance in this area was mainly due to two independent variables, namely salinity and temperature. Using cluster analysis, it was possible to categorize different groups with homogeneous features as regards space ("stations") and time ("seasons") distribution, as well as to quantify the values of environmental variables and the Vibrio abundances in each category. Furthermore, integrating key environmental factors and bacterial concentration values, it was possible to identify levels of salinity and sea surface temperature which were optimal for Vibrio concentration in water, plankton, and sediment samples. The identification of key environmental variables conditioning Vibrio occurrence should facilitate ocean monitoring, making it possible to predict unexpected variations in marine microflora which determine possible public health risks in coastal areas.

Microbial community structure in the subtropical north-east Atlantic Ocean was compared between 2 years and variation attributed to environmental variables. Surface seawater communities were analysed by flow cytometry and fluorescence in situ hybridisation. Probes specific to Alphaproteobacteria, Cyanobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria and Bacteroidetes identified 67-100% of cells. Due to natural variation in the study region due to the occurrence of major currents and islands, data could not be pooled but were instead divided between distinct water masses. Community structure did not differ greatly around the Cape Verde Islands between sampling periods but varied substantially in the open ocean, suggesting different environmental perturbations favour specific bacterial groups. Wind speed varied significantly between years, with moderate to strong breeze in winter 2008 and gales in winter 2006 (8.9 ± 0.2 ms(-1) and 16.0 ± 0.4 ms(-1), respectively). Enhanced wind-driven turbulence was associated with domination by the SAR11 clade of Alphaproteobacteria, which were present at 2.4-fold in the abundance of Prochlorococcus (41.8 ± 1.6% cells, compared to 17.7 ± 7.1%). Conversely, the calmer conditions of 2008 seemed to favour Prochlorococcus (40.0 ± 1.2% cells). Prochlorococcus high-light adapted clade HLI were only numerous during wind-driven turbulence, whereas oligotrophic-adapted clade HLII dominated under calm conditions. Bacteroidetes were most prominent in turbulent conditions (9.5 ± 1.3% cells as opposed to 4.7 ± 0.3%), as were Synechococcus. In 2008, a considerable dust deposition event occurred in the region, which may have led to the substantial Gammaproteobacteria population (22.5 ± 4.0% cells compared to 4.6 ± 0.6% in 2006). Wind-driven turbulence may have a significant impact on microbial community structure in the surface ocean. Therefore, community change following dust storm events may be linked to associated wind in addition to dust-derived nutrients.

The influence of bacterial activity and diversity on bacterial growth efficiency was investigated in a flatland river. Eutrophic River Warnow drains predominantly agricultural land and is heavily loaded with nutrients, dissolved and particulate organic matter (DOM and POM), especially humic substances. Although the water column bacterial community consists of many inactive or damaged cells, bacterioplankton sustained a high bacterial secondary production of 0.2-14.5 μg C L(-1) h(-1) and a high DNA synthesis (thymidine uptake) of 6.1-15.5 μg C L(-1) h(-1). The direct and short-term measurement of bacterial respiration (by optodes) revealed high respiration rates especially in summer leading to directly estimated bacterial growth efficiencies (BGE) of 2-28%. These values are compared to calculations based only on bacterial production, which considerably overestimated BGEs. From all these data, River Warnow can be characterized as a strongly remineralizing system. River Warnow was dominated among others by Cytophaga/Flavobacteria and Actinobacteria which are typical for organic rich waters because of their ability to degrade high molecular weight compounds. However, community composition did not significantly affect BGE.

The River Warnow is the drinking water source for the city of Rostock. Its eutrophic status is accompanied by high amounts of bacteria, which may reach up to 24 x 10(6) cells mL(-1) as recorded during a seasonal study in 2002. Because the river is eutrophic and also heavily loaded with organic matter, this burden is a problem for drinking water purification, as it must be removed completely to not trigger new bacterial growth in the pipeline network. Therefore, restoration measures in the river have to be planned, and bacteria have to be favored as decomposers. That includes the investigation of the physiological state of bacteria in situ. Viable and active cells in the lower reaches of River Warnow were estimated using a broad set of methods. Intact bacteria were investigated by the LIVE/DEAD BacLight bacterial viability kit, containing a mixture of permeant and impermeant nucleic acid stains. Cells with ribosomes were visualized by fluorescence in situ hybridization with the EUB338 oligonucleotide probe. Intact cells and ribosome-containing bacteria represented 24% of total numbers stained by 4'6,-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) or 66 and 62%, respectively, in relation to all bacteria visualized by the LIVE/DEAD kit. Both fractions were considered as viable, although the fraction of RIB + bacteria is most likely underestimated by the protocol applied. 5-Cyano-2,3-ditolyltetrazolium chloride (CTC) was applied to mark respiring bacteria. The esterase substrate CellTracker Green 5-chloromethylfluorescein diacetate showed cells with intracellular hydrolytic activity. Whereas 1.5% of DAPI-stained bacteria were observed as respiring, 3.8% exhibited intracellular hydrolytic activity on average. If these active fractions were calculated as the percentages of intact cells, much higher fractions of 5.4% were respiring and 16% hydrolytic. Temperature was a main factor influencing total and viable cell numbers simultaneously. The results confirm that there are different states of viable and active cells in natural bacterioplankton communities. However, it remains unclear why fractions of viable and active cells were rather low in this eutrophic river in comparison to similar waters. We recommend to carefully address cells as viable in contrast to nonviable, i.e., dead. As viable cells may be active or inactive with respect to many different activities, e.g., substrate uptake, respiration, hydrolysis, and cell deviation, it is necessary to choose the method to visualize active cells according to the question to be answered.

Classical pollutants (e.g., hydrocarbon, pesticides) have been recently recognized to induce lytic cycle in lysogenic bacteria, but information on micro-pollutants is almost completely lacking. We investigated the effects of cosmetic sun products (sunscreen and solar oil) on viral abundance and bacterial activity. We found that both sunscreen and solar oil acted as pollutants, inducing viral development and controlling bacterial abundance and production, thus leading to an increase of the virus to bacterium ratio. Short-term experiments revealed that sunscreen supplementation induced the lytic cycle in a large fraction of total bacterial abundance (13-24% of bacteria, at low and high concentrations, respectively), whereas solar oil had a lower impact (6-9%). A synchronized development of the phage-host system was observed only after sunscreen addition. The addition of sunscreen, even at low concentrations, had a significant impact on all enzymatic activities (aminopeptidase, glucosidase, and phosphatase), which increased significantly. However, when enzymatic activities were normalized per cell, a selective enhancement was observed for certain enzymes (e.g., aminopeptidase) and inhibition for others (e.g., glucosidase). These results indicate that sunscreen products can modify C, N, and P biogeochemical cycling in seawater and increase virus abundance through prophage induction in marine bacterioplankton.

Salinity has been suggested as being a controlling factor for blooms of N2-fixing cyanobacteria in estuaries. We tested the effect of salinity on the growth, N2 fixation, and photosynthetic activities of estuarine and freshwater isolates of heterocystous bloom-forming cyanobacteria. Anabaena aphanizomenoides and Anabaenopsis sp. were isolated from the Neuse River Estuary, North Carolina, and Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii from Lakes Dora and Griffin, central Florida. Salinity tolerance of these cyanobacteria was compared with that of two Nodularia strains from the Baltic Sea. We measured growth rates, N2 fixation (nitrogenase activity), and CO2 fixation at salinities between 0 and 20 g L(-1) NaCl. We also examined photosynthesis-irradiance relation-ships in response to salinity. Anabaenopsis maintained similar growth rates in the full range of salinities from 2 to 20 g L(-1) NaCl. Anabaena grew at up to 15 g L-', but the maximum salinity 20 g L(-1) NaCl was inhibitory. The upper limit for salinity tolerance of Cylindrospermopsis was 4 g L(-1) NaCl. Nodularia spp. maintained similar growth rates in the full range of salinities from 0 to 20 g L(-1) . Between 0 and 10 g L(-1), the growth rate of Nodularia spumigena was slower than that of the Neuse Estuary strains. In most strains, the sensitivity of nitrogenase activity and CO2 fixation to salinity appeared similar. Anabaenopsis, Anabaena, and the two Nodularia strains rapidly responded to NaCl by increasing their maximum photosynthetic rates (Pmn). Overall, both Neuse River Estuary and Baltic Sea strains showed an ability to acclimate to salt stress over short-(24 h) and long-term (several days to weeks) exposures. The study suggested that direct effect of salinity (as NaCl in these experiments) on cyanobacterial physiology does not alone explain the low frequency and magnitude of blooms of N2-fixing cyanobacteria in estuaries.