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We used the nitrogen isotope ratio of algae, suspended particles and nitrate in the water column to track spatial variations in the marine nitrogen cycle in the Mediterranean Sea. Surface PON (5–74 m) was more depleted in 15N in the eastern basin (−0.3±0.5‰) than in the western basin (+2.4±1.4‰), suggesting that nitrogen supplied by biological N2 fixation may be an important source of new nitrogen in the eastern basin, where preformed nitrate from the Atlantic Ocean could have been depleted during its transit eastward. The δ15N of nitrate in the deep Mediterranean (∼3‰ in the western-most Mediterranean and decreasing toward the east) is significantly lower than nitrate at similar depths from the North Atlantic (4.8–5‰), also suggesting an important role for N2 fixation. The eastward decrease in the δ15N of surface PON is greater than the eastward decrease in the δ15N of the subsurface nitrate, implying that the amount of N2 fixation in the eastern Mediterranean is great enough to cause a major divergence in the δ15N of phytoplankton biomass from the δ15N of the nitrate upwelled from below. Variations in productivity associated with frontal processes, including shoaling of the nitracline, did not lead to detectable variations in the δ15N of PON. This indicates that no differential fertilization or productivity gradient occurred in the Almerian/Oran area. Our results are consistent with a lack of gradient in chlorophyll-a (chl-a) and nitrate concentration in the Alboran Sea. 15N enrichment in particles below 500 m depth was detected in the Alboran Sea with respect to surface PON, reaching an average value of +7.4±0.7‰. The δ15N in sinking particles caught at 100 m depth (4.9–5.6‰) was intermediate between suspended surface and suspended deep particles. We found a consistent difference in the isotopic composition of nitrogen in PON compared with that of chlorophyll (Δδ15N[PON-chlorin]=+6.4±1.4‰) in the surface, similar to the offset reported earlier in cultures for cellular N and chl-a. This indicates that δ15N of phytoplankton biomass was retained in surface PON, and that alteration of the isotopic signal of PON at depth was due to heterotrophic activity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Focuses on the nitrogen isotopic measurements in fossil chlorophyll from late Pleistocene organic-rich sediments (sapropels) in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Characteristics of the Mediterranean Sea; Cause of the sedimentary layers; How nitrogen isotopic composition of living and ancient phytoplankton was determined.

Abstract: We targeted the warm, subsurface waters of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea (EMS) to investigate processes that are linked to the chemical composition and cycling of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in seawater. The apparent respiration of semi-labile DOC accounted for 27 ± 18% of oxygen consumption in EMS mesopelagic and bathypelagic waters; this value is higher than that observed in the bathypelagic open ocean, so the chemical signals that accompany remineralization of DOC may thus be more pronounced in this region. Ultrafiltered dissolved organic matter (UDOM) collected from four deep basins at depths ranging from 2 to 4350m exhibited bulk chemical (1H-NMR) and molecular level (amino acid and monosaccharide) abundances, composition, and spatial distribution that were similar to previous reports, except for a sample collected in the deep waters of the N. Aegean Sea that had been isolated for over a decade. The amino acid component of UDOM was tightly correlated with apparent oxygen utilization and prokaryotic activity, indicating its relationship with remineralization processes that occur over a large range of timescales. Principal component analyses of relative mole percentages of monomers revealed that oxygen consumption and prokaryotic activity were correlated with variability in amino acid distributions but not well correlated with monosaccharide distributions. Taken together, this study elucidates key relationships between the chemical composition of DOM and heterotrophic metabolism. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In tropical and subtropical oceanic surface waters phosphate scarcity can limit microbial productivity. However, these environments also have bioavailable forms of phosphorus incorporated into dissolved organic matter (DOM) that microbes with the necessary transport and hydrolysis metabolic pathways can access to supplement their phosphorus requirements. In this study we evaluated how the environment shapes the abundance and taxonomic distribution of the bacterial carbon-phosphorus (C-P) lyase pathway, an enzyme complex evolved to extract phosphate from phosphonates. Phosphonates are organophosphorus compounds characterized by a highly stable C-P bond and are enriched in marine DOM. Similar to other known bacterial adaptions to low phosphate environments, C-P lyase was found to become more prevalent as phosphate concentrations decreased. C-P lyase was particularly enriched in the Mediterranean Sea and North Atlantic Ocean, two regions that feature sustained periods of phosphate depletion. In these regions, C-P lyase was prevalent in several lineages of Alphaproteobacteria (Pelagibacter, SAR116, Roseobacter and Rhodospirillales), Gammaproteobacteria, and Actinobacteria. The global scope of this analysis supports previous studies that infer phosphonate catabolism via C-P lyase is an important adaptive strategy implemented by bacteria to alleviate phosphate limitation and expands the known geographic extent and taxonomic affiliation of this metabolic pathway in the ocean., (© 2019 The Authors. Environmental Microbiology published by Society for Applied Microbiology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)