Search

Article research, Microbial heterotrophic activity is a major process regulating the flux of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the ocean, while the characteristics of this DOM strongly influence its microbial utilization and fate in the ocean. In order to broaden the vertical resolution of leucine-to-carbon conversion factors (CFs), needed for converting substrate incorporation into biomass production by heterotrophic bacteria, 20 dilution experiments were performed in the North Atlantic Ocean. We found a depth-stratification in empirical CFs values from epipelagic to bathypelagic waters (4.00 ± 1.09 to 0.10 ± 0.00 kg C mol Leu−1). Our results demonstrated that the customarily used theoretical CF of 1.55 kg C mol Leu−1 in oceanic samples can lead to an underestimation of prokaryotic heterotrophic production in epi- and mesopelagic waters, while it can overestimate it in the bathypelagic ocean. Pearson correlations showed that CFs were related not only to hydrographic variables such as temperature, but also to specific phylogenetic groups and DOM quality and quantity indices. Furthermore, a multiple linear regression model predicting CFs from relatively simple hydrographic and optical spectroscopic measurements was attempted. Taken together, our results suggest that differences in CFs throughout the water column are significantly connected to DOM, and also reflect differences linked to specific prokaryotic groups., 2,927

Oral communication Microbial heterotrophic activity is a major process regulating the flux of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the ocean. DOM quantity and quality strongly influence its microbial utilization and fate in the ocean. In order to broaden the vertical resolution of leucine-to-carbon conversion factors (CFs), needed for converting substrate incorporation into biomass production by heterotrophic bacteria, nine dilution experiments were performed in the north Atlantic. We found a very consistent depth-stratification in empirical CFs values from epipelagic to bathypelagic waters (3.95 ± 0.05 to 0.90 ± 0.51 kg C mol Leu-1). Our results demonstrated that the customarily used CF of 1.55 kg C mol Leu-1 in oceanic waters leads to an underestimation of prokaryotic heterotrophic production in epi- and mesopelagic waters, while it causes a severe overestimation in bathypelagic waters. Pearson correlations showed that CFs were related not only to hydrographic variables but also to specific phylogenetic groups and DOM quality and quantity indicators. Furthermore, a multiple linear regression model predicting CFs from relatively simple hydrographic and optical spectroscopic measurements is provided. Taken together, our results suggest that differences in CFs throughout the water column might be mostly associated to the quality of DOM affecting the response of particular phylogenetic groups. ASLO

Póster, Ecological and biogeochemical processes, Ecological and biogeochemical processes in the ocean are dependent on a diverse assemblage of microbes, including members of Bacteria (Glöckner et al, 2012). These bacterial assemblages occurs in vast numbers and represent a huge genetic diversity, fulfilling a wide of ecological roles in the marine system such as carbon geochemical cycle and energy transfer into higher trophic levels., We combined flow cytometry, CARD-FISH and 16S rRNA gene tag pyrosequencing to investigate the short-term variability of the bacterial communities in samples collected along a transect in the shelf off NW Iberian Peninsula over one week.

Poster, Mixing zones and boundaries between different water masses are "hot spots" of marine biodiversity and activity. We aimed to investigate the effects of water mass mixing in the dark-ocean microbial communities by collecting and incubating natural bacterial communities from the Mediterranean Water (MW; at 1000 m depth), the Subpolar Modal Water (SPMW, 500m) and the Labrador Sea Water (LSW, 1800 m), and comparing them with artificially mixed communities. Mixing experiment 1 consisted of incubating at in sity conditions the original LSW and MW communities, plus a mixture of both (MIX1, dilution 1:1), whereas the Mixing experiment 2 included the original prokaryotic communities from SPMW and MW and a mixture of both (MIX2, dilution 1:1). Bacterial abundance and activity was monitored every 24 h over 8 days, while bacterial community composition and DOM characterization were assessed at the beginning (day 0), middle (day 4) and at the end of the experiment (day 8). Live prokaryotic cell abundance was higher in the MIX1 and MIX2 treatments as compared to the original communities. Moreover, MIX bacteria showed slightly higher leucine incorporation rates than MW or LSW. These metabolic responses were accompanied by changes in the optical properties of DOM, suggesting a change in the dynamics of the organic matter. Taken together, our results indicate differences in the bio-reactvity of the organic matter after mixing as compared to the original water masses that could influence the composition and activity of the bacterial community.

Article, The capability of different bacterial populations to degrade abundant polymers, such as algal-derived polysaccharides, or to utilize prefentially polymers over monomers, remains largely unknown. In this study, microautoradiaography was combined with fluorescence in situ hybridization (MAR-FISH) to evaluate the ability of Bacterioidetes, SAR11, Roseobacter spp, Gammaproteobacteria and SAR86 cells to use bicarbonate, leucine and starch under natural light conditions at two locations in shelf surface waters off NW Spain. The percentage of cells incorporating bicarbonate was relatively high (mean 32% +- 4%) and was positively correlated with the intensity of solar radiation. The proportion of cells using starch (mean 56% +- 4%) or leucine (mean 47% +- 4%) was significantly higher than that using bicarbonate. On average, SAR11, Roseobacter spp and Gammaproteobacteria showed a similarly high percentage of cells using leucine (47%-65% of hybridized cells) than using starch (51%-64% of hybridized cells) while Bacteroidetes and SAR86 cells preferentially used starch (53% of hybridized cells) over leucine (34%-40% of hybridized cells). We suggest that the great percentage of bacteria using starch is related to a high ambient availability of polymers associated to algal cell lysis, which, in turn, weakens the short-term coupling between phytoplankton release and bacterial production., 5,843

Capítulo de libro, El conocimiento de la diversidad bacteriana en aguas marinas en Galicia es incipiente y se basa actualmente en el uso de técnicas de análisis molecular (secuenciación de un fragmento del gen ARNr 16S en aguas de ría, de plataforma, aguas oceánicas costeras, en playas y en sedimentos intermareales. La lista publicada incluye fundamentalmente géneros, debido a la imposibilidad de identificar con fiabilidad a nivel de especie basándose en esta técnica a partir de muestras oceánicas

Poster communication, Our results provide evidence for the significant contribution to chemolithotrophy by specific archaeal and bacterial groups in the dark ocean.

Heterotrophic bacteria respond dynamically to variations in organic matter availability in the dark ocean. However, our knowledge on how the differences in sized and/or reactivity of dissolved organic matter (DOM) affect the bacterial community dynamics is still scarce. Our study aims to investigate the response of bacterial activity and community composition to the degradability of filtered and of size-fractionated DOM. A natural bacterial community isolated from Mediterrean Water (MW; at 1000 m depth) was inoculated in seawater from the same location subjected to three different treatments: 0.2µm-filtered seawater (control), low molecular weight fraction (LMW) obtained by ultrafiltration, and the combination of low and high molecular weight fractions at the original ratio (H+L). Bacterial abundance and activity was monitored every 24h over 6 days, while bacterial community composition and DOM characterization were assessed at the beginning (day 0), middle (day 4) and at the end of the experiment (day 6). Low (LNA) and high nucleic acid content (HNA) bacterial abundance, as well as leucine incorporation rates, were consistently higher in the H+L incubations than in the LMW treatments, indicating different reactivity of the two organic matter size fractions. Moreover, actively respiring cells, estimated as CTC-positive cells, highly correlated to humic-like substances (FDOM-M; R=0.7, P

Recent studies suggest that the prokaryotes inhabiting the dark ocean present higher chemolithoautotrophic activity than assumed previously. These chemolithoautotrophic microbes incorporate dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) as carbon source for biomass production and use reduced inorganic compound as an energy source. We have quantified DIC fixation in the meso- and bathypelagic waters of the northwestern coast of the Iberian Peninsula, ranging from 1.04 to 46.83 mmol C m-2 d-1. Combining microautoradiography and fluorescence in situ hybridization (MICRO-CARD-FISH), we confirmed that both Thaumarchaeota and some bacterial groups such as SAR-11, SAR-202, SAR-406, Alteromonas take up bicarbonate uptake, particularly in the mesopelagic waters. Quantitative PCR analyses clearly showed a higher abundance of thaumarchaeal 16S and low ammonia concentration (LAC)- amoA genes in meso- and lower bathypelagic waters than in surface waters. In contrast, high ammonia concentration (HAC)- amoA genes dominated the subsurface samples. Taken together, both genomic and physiological evidences indicate that some archaeal and bacterial groups may be significant contributors to dark ocean chemoautolithotrophy.

Comunicación oral Planktonic communities play pivotal roles within marine ecosystems, affecting their structure, functioning and services. Although they have been extensively studied in the epipelagic ocean, the knowledge about these communities in the dark ocean is rather short. In this study, we explored patterns of abundance and biomass of a wide variety of taxonomic groups from the prokaryotes to mesozooplankton in the epi-, meso- and bathypelagic waters off the Galician coast. As expected, ciliate and zooplankton abundances are depleted in the bathypelagic waters relative to abundances of prokaryotes and nanoflagellates. The rate of decrease of zooplankton biomass with depth is twice as that of prokaryotes and nanoflagellates, indicating that relative contribution of mesozooplancton to the total plankton biomass decreases with depth. Overall, the diversity of prokaryotes in the dark ocean is almost as high as in the epipelagic layer, although the phylotypes are different. The major fraction of epipelagic ciliates belongs to alloricate genera, whereas tintinnids dominate the deep ciliate populations. Small copepods were dominant in the epi- and meso-pelagic zone. By contrast, foraminiferans, big copepods and myctophic fishes were more abundant in the deep ocean.

We have simultaneously studied the abundance, activity and prokaryotic community structure in relation to the quality of oceanic dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the meso- and bathypelagic waters off the Galician Coast (NW Spain, from 43ºN, 9ºW to 43ºN, 15ºW).Distint water masses were identified based on their physical and chemical characteristics. While prokaryotic heterotrophic production decreased from the euphotic layer to the bathypelagic waters by two orders of magnitude, prokaryotic abundance decreased only by one order of magnitude. The relative abundance of SAR11 and Alteromonas, determined by catalyzed reported deposition fluorescence in situ hybridization (CARD-FISH) decreased with depth, while the contribution of SAR 202 and SAR324 to total bacterial abundance as well as the percentage of total prokaryotes identified as Crenarchaeota was significantly higher in the deeper layers (NEADW, North East Atlantic Deep Water and LDW, Lower Deep Water) than in the euphotic zone. Bacterial abundance showed a positive correlation with the absorption coefficient at 254 nm and the dissolved organic carbon, while was negatively correlated to marine humic-like substances. Crenarchaeotal abundance was correlated positively to protein-like fluorescence and the molecular weight of the DOM On the other hand, Bacterial and archaeal community structure were analyzed by ARISA (automatic rRNA intergenic spacer analysis) and T-RFLP (terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism) fingerprints respectively. Both bacterial and archaeal community structures were depth-stratified, with a total of 305 and 48 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) respectively, as revealed. A linear model approach (DISTLM,) revealed that the variability found in both bacterial and archaeal community was mainly described by nitrate, phosphate, temperature, coloured and fluorescent DOM, prokaryotic abundance and prokaryotic leucine incorporation. Our results displayed a prokaryotic community structure based not only on depth-related physicochemical features but also on DOM quality, indicating that different prokaryotic taxa have the potential to metabolize specific DOM sources.