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International audience; The productivity of most marine ecosystems is limited by the availability of dissolved nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). Nutrient recycling is therefore a key process for ecosystem functioning. Fish recycle nutrients through the excretion of ammonia and phosphate and can influence the abundance and community structure of primary producers such as phytoplankton. However, the effect of fish on other plankton compartments, and whether all fish species have similar effects, is largely unknown. We used a tank experiment to test how 2 Mediterranean fish species, gilthead seabream Sparus aurata and golden mullet Chelon auratus, with distinctly different N and P excretion rates, can affect the abundance and community structure of 3 plankton compartments: phytoplankton, bacterioplankton, and microzooplankton. We found that the nutrients released by seabream (whose excreta had an N:P molar ratio greater than the Redfield ratio of 16:1) induced a substantial increase in the abundance of all plankton compartments. In addition, with seabream, the relative abundance of diatoms in the phytoplankton communities increased. However, no significant change was observed with mullet, which had a low excreta N:P molar ratio, suggesting that the growth of microbial plankton was limited by the availability of N. Our results demonstrate that nutrient excretion by fish affects the microbial food web through a species-specific bottom-up effect on the total abundance and community structure of the phytoplankton, bacterioplankton, and microzooplankton communities.

Author Correction: Demonstration of facilitation between microalgae to face environmental stress. In Scientific Reports, vol; 10, n°1, Article : 3557 ; DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-59860-0 ; WOS:000563252500001 Author Correction: Demonstration of facilitation between microalgae to face environmental stress. In Scientific Reports, vol; 10, n°1, Article : 3557 ; DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-59860-0 ; WOS:000563252500001The original version of this Article omitted an affiliation for Emna Krichen and the Acknowledgements section contained typographical errors and was incomplete. This erratum is available as an annex file.; International audience; Positive interactions such as facilitation play an important role during the biological colonization and species succession in harsh or changing environments. However, the direct evidence of such ecological interaction in microbial communities remains rare. Using common freshwater microalgae isolated from a High Rate Algal Pond HRAP treating wastewaters, we investigated with both experimental and modeling approaches the direct facilitation between two algal strains during the colonization phase. Our results demonstrate that the first colonization by microalgae under a severe chemical condition arose from the rapid growth of pioneer species such as Chlorella sorokiniana, which facilitated the subsequent colonization of low growth specialists such as Scenedesmus pectinatus. The pioneer species rapidly depleted the total available ammonia nitrogen favoring the specialist species initially inhibited by free ammonia toxicity. This latter species ultimately dominated the algal community through competitive exclusion under low nutrient conditions. We show that microbial successions are not only regulated by climatic conditions but also by interactions between species based on the ability to modify their growth conditions. We suggest that facilitation within the aquatic microbial communities is a widespread ecological interaction under a vast range of environmental stress.

Recent observations in polar marine waters have shown that a large fraction of primary production may be lost to respiration by planktonic bacteria due to very low bacterial growth efficiencies in cold waters. Here we report that sea temperature may be a key factor (but not the only one) influencing the interaction between bacteria and primary production in North Atlantic and Arctic waters, suggesting that low primary production rates could not sustain bacterial carbon demand in the coldest Arctic waters. The use of freshly produced phytoplankton exudate by bacteria in early- and mid-summer was assessed, together with the bacterial uptake of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN = nitrate and ammonium), in surface waters along a latitudinal gradient from the North Sea to the Arctic sea ice. Bacterial production was independent of the low primary production measured in the coldest waters. Under these conditions, heterotrophic bacteria can consume a large fraction of DIN and N-rich organic matter, making them strong contributors to N fluxes in these waters.

International audience; This study investigated the influence of light and temperature on Chlorella sorokiniana grown on a mixture of acetate and butyrate, two of the volatile fatty acids produced by dark fermentation. Exposure to light caused autotrophic biomass production (56% of the final biomass) and reduced the time to reach butyrate exhaustion to 7 days at 25°C from 10 days in the dark. For growth on acetate at the optimum temperature (35°C), the presence of butyrate reduced the growth rate (by 46%) and the carbon yield (by 36%). For successful microalgae growth on dark fermentation effluent, butyrate inhibition may be reduced by setting the temperature to 30°C and providing light.

International audience; Rivers are known to be major contributors to eutrophication in marine coastal waters, but little is known on the short-term impact of freshwater surges on the structure and functioning of the marine plankton community. The effect of adding river water, reducing the salinity by 15 and 30%, on an autumn plankton community in a Mediterranean coastal lagoon (Thau Lagoon, France) was determined during a 6-day mesocosm experiment. Adding river water brought not only nutrients but also chlorophyceans that did not survive in the brackish mesocosm waters. The addition of water led to initial increases (days 1-2) in bacterial production as well as increases in the abundances of bacterioplankton and picoeukaryotes. After day 3, the increases were more significant for diatoms and dinoflagellates that were already present in the Thau Lagoon water (mainly Pseudo-nitzschia spp. group delicatissima and Prorocentrum triestinum) and other larger organisms (tintinnids, rotifers). At the same time, the abundances of bacterioplankton, cyanobacteria, and picoeukaryote fell, some nutrients (NH4 (+), SiO4 (3-)) returned to pre-input levels, and the plankton structure moved from a trophic food web based on secondary production to the accumulation of primary producers in the mesocosms with added river water. Our results also show that, after freshwater inputs, there is rapid emergence of plankton species that are potentially harmful to living organisms. This suggests that flash flood events may lead to sanitary issues, other than pathogens, in exploited marine areas.

We describe a new transportable floating mesocosm platform with autonomous sensors. The platform has 9 separate units that can be transported by medium-sized research vessels and positioned in coastal waters. The in situ mesocosms are equipped with a set of sensors for measuring water temperature, conductivity, chlorophyll a fluorescence (Chl a), and dissolved oxygen concentration. It can take measurements every 2 min, store these measurements, and transmit them in real time. Each mesocosm has a pump with regulated flow to mix the water column. One of the floating units is used as an in situ observatory to monitor the water temperature and Chl a in the water around the mesocosms as well as weather data and the incident light. The main data logger on the platform sends all the data collected to a remote PC computer. This floating mesocosm platform was successfully deployed in 2010 and 2011 in Mediterranean coastal waters (Thau lagoon and Cretan Sea, respectively). Simultaneous, automatic, high temporal resolution monitoring of physical, chemical, and biological parameters in the mesocosms proved to be a powerful, noninvasive, and effective approach for i) monitoring the variations in physical and chemical parameters in real time and ii) assessing the short-term variations in Chl a and the pelagic food web metabolism (e.g., the community respiration, gross primary production, and net community production) in the mesocosms without any manipulation of water samples.

International audience; This work describes a method to model the optical properties over the (400-750 nm) spectral range of a dense microalgal culture using the chemical and physical properties of the algal cells. The method was based on a specific program called AlgaSim coupled with the adding-doubling method: at the individual cell scale, AlgaSim simulates the spectral properties of one model, three-layer spherical algal cell from its size and chemical composition. As a second step, the adding-doubling method makes it possible to retrieve the total transmittance of the algal medium from the optical properties of the individual algal cells. The method was tested by comparing the simulated total transmittance spectra for dense marine microalgal cultures of Isochrysis galbana (small flagellates) and Phaeodactylum tricornutum (diatoms) to spectra measured using an experimental spectrophotometric setup. Our study revealed that the total transmittance spectra simulated for the quasi-spherical cells of Isochrysis galbana were in good agreement with the measured spectra over the whole spectral range. For Phaeodactylum tricornutum, large differences between simulated and measured spectra were observed over the blue part of the transmittance spectra, probably due to non-spherical shape of the algal cells. Prediction of the algal cell density, mean size and pigment composition from the total transmittance spectra measured on algal samples was also investigated using the reversal of the method. Mean cell size was successfully predicted for both species. The cell density was also successfully predicted for spherical Isochrysis galbana, with a relative error below 7%, but not for elongated Phaeodactylum tricornutum with a relative error up to 26%. The pigments total quantity and composition, the carotenoids:chlorophyll ratio in particular, were also successfully predicted for Isochrysis galbana with a relative error below 8%. However, the pigment predictions and measurements for Phaeodactylum tricornutum showed large discrepancies, with a relative error up to 88%. These results give strong support for the development of a promising tool providing rapid and accurate estimations of biomass and physiological status of a dense microalgal culture based on only light transmittance properties.

Different calculations of bacterial carbon demand (BCD) were applied to bacterioplanktonic production datasets from oceanic euphotic waters and compared with estimates of dissolved and total phytoplanktonic production estimates. All calculations showed that the BCD in low productive waters was not supported by contemporary dissolved phytoplanktonic production or by the whole phytoplanktonic production when empirically modeled bacterial respiration and growth efficiency rates were used. This supports the new ecological concept of bacterial independence on phytoplankton production at the time scales (days, weeks) relevant to the microbial generation times observed in the oceans and used in biological and ecological models.

For several decades, prokaryotic and eukaryotic inhibitors have been used to exclude bacteria from microalgal cultures and for investigating prey-predator relationships. Recently there has been considerable interest in using specific inhibitors for studying the interactions between bacteria and phytoplankton, by selective repression of either organism’s activity. The effectiveness of chemical inhibitors must be tested before applying them to natural communities to partition metabolic activities between functional groups. Six different antibiotics selected from the most commonly reported in the literature were tested, at concentrations varying from 12.5 to 100 mg L −1 , for their effect on bacterial growth and functional diversity of natural communities from Mediterranean coastal waters. Penicillin and streptomycin each at a final concentration of 100 mg L −1 significantly reduced bacterial growth within 2 h. There was a greater impact on bacterial functional diversity when both antibiotics were mixed together. This mixture did not have any significant effect on the growth of selected cultured phytoplankton strains, whereas the eukaryote inhibitor cycloheximide at 100 mg L −1 reduced growth within 2 h of incubation. The penicillin–streptomycin mixture and cycloheximide alone successfully partitioned NH 4 + and NO 3 − uptake between bacteria and phytoplankton bi-weekly sampled in a coastal lagoon in Autumn, where bacterial contribution to total NH 4 + and NO 3 − uptake averaged 46 and 41%, respectively. The use of specific inhibitors may be a valuable method for studying interactions, such as competition and mutualism, or lack of interaction between the different components of microbial communities and could be used to study their relative importance in biogeochemical fluxes.

Positive relationships between heterotrophic bacteria and particulate phytoplankton production (respectively, BP and PPP) have been reported for several areas, suggesting that material produced by phytoplankton was a major substrate for bacterial growth. Since then, thousands of simultaneous measurements of both PPP and BP have been performed. A review of these data showed that BP may exceed PPP considerably (median ranged between 132% and 484%) in all aquatic systems with the lowest PPP. In oceanic waters, BP did not seem to be temporally synchronized with PPP and the median BP : PPP ratio is 15% with moderate PPP, but the immediate bacterial carbon (C) demand (including bacterial respiration) was greater than the corresponding total primary production (i.e. dissolved and particulate primary production) for >80% of both volumetric and areal datasets. In freshwaters, the strong covariation observed between BP and PPP seemed mainly due to a common response to sudden nutrient inputs into enclosed systems, leading to a similar range of production rates and temporal synchronicities. Indeed, phytoplankton exudates contributed directly to only 32% (median) of BP when C-tracking experiments were performed in freshwaters. Therefore, because direct C dependency of bacteria on phytoplankton is questionable, other C sources might be more significant for bacterial growth.

In recent years, coupling bacterial dark fermentation (DF) and heterotrophic cultivation of microalgae (HCM) has been pointed out as a promising sustainable approach for producing both gaseous and liquid biofuels. Complex organic waste and effluents that are not susceptible to be directly degraded by microalgae are first converted into volatile fatty acids (VFAs) and hydrogen by DF. In this work, the feasibility of using DF effluents to sustain has been thoroughly reviewed and evaluated. Promising perspectives in terms of microalgae biomass and lipids production are proposed and can be extended as guidelines to promote HCM whatever the organic waste used. Abiotic and biotic factors from DF effluents that promote or inhibit microalgae growth are discussed as well as the use of unsterile DF effluents. Overall, the microalgae growth is favored on effluents containing high acetate concentration (> 3 g L−1), with a high acetate:butyrate ratio (> 2.5), and when pH is strictly controlled. At a low acetate:butyrate ratio (10 g L−1), a low substrate:microalgae ratio and the presence of light appear to enhance microalgae growth. Butyrate content appears to be a key factor when coupling DF/HCM since high butyrate concentration inhibits the microalgae growth.

Regions of Restricted Exchange (RREs) are an important feature of the European coastline. They are historically preferred sites for human settlement and aquaculture and their ecosystems, and consequent human use, may be at risk from eutrophication. The OAERRE project (EVK3-CT1999-0002) concerns 'Oceanographic Applications to Eutrophication in Regions of Restricted Exchange'. It began in July 2000, and studies six sites. Four of these sites are fjords: Kongsfjorden (west coast of Spitzbergen); Gullmaren (Skagerrak coast of Sweden); Himmerfjarden (Baltic coast of Sweden); and the Firth of Clyde (west coast of Scotland). Two are bays sheltered by sand bars: Golfe de Fos (French Mediterranean); and Ria Formosa (Portuguese Algarve). Together they exemplify a range of hydrographic and enrichment conditions. The project aims to understand the physical, biogeochemical and biological processes, and their interactions, that determine the trophic status of these coastal marine RRE through the development of simple screening models to define, predict and assess eutrophication. This paper introduces the sites and describes the component parts of a basic screening model and its application to each site using historical data. The model forms the starting point for the OAERRE project and views an RRE as a well-mixed box, exchanging with the sea at a daily rate E determined by physical processes, and converting nutrient to phytoplankton chlorophyll at a fixed yield q. It thus uses nutrient levels to estimate maximum biomass; these preliminary results are discussed in relation to objective criteria used to assess trophic status. The influence of factors such as grazing and vertical mixing on key parameters in the screening model are further studied using simulations of a complex 'research' model for the Firth of Clyde. The future development of screening models in general and within OAERRE in particular is discussed. In addition, the paper looks ahead with a broad discussion of progress in the scientific understanding of eutrophication and the legal and socioeconomic issues that need to be taken into account in managing the trophic status of RREs.

The importance of heterotrophic bacteria relative to phytoplankton in the uptake of ammonium and nitrate was studied in Mediterranean coastal waters (Thau Lagoon) during autumn, when the Mediterranean Sea received the greatest allochthonous nutrient loads. Specific inhibitors and size-fractionation methods were used in combination with isotopic 15N tracers. NO3 − and NH4 + uptake was dominated by phytoplankton (60 % on average) during the study period, which included a flood event. Despite lower biomass specific NH4 + and NO3 uptake rates, free-living heterotrophic bacteria contributed significantly (>30 %) to total microbial NH4 + and NO3 − uptake rates in low chlorophyll waters. Under these conditions, heterotrophic bacteria may be responsible for more than 50 % of primary production, using very little freshly produced phytoplankton exudates. In low chlorophyll coastal waters as reported during the present 3-month study, the heterotrophic bacteria seemed to depend to a greater extent on allochthonous N and C substrates than on autochthonous substrates derived from phytoplankton.

International audience; The effects of grazing pressure and inorganic nutrient availability on the direct carbon transfer from freshly produced phytoplankton exudates to heterotrophic bacteria biomass production were studied in Mediterranean coastal waters. The short-term incorporation of 13C (H13CO3) in phytoplankton and bacterial lipid biomarkers was measured as well as the total bacterial carbon production (BP), viral lysis and the microbial community structure under three experimental conditions: (1) High inorganic Nutrient and High Grazing (HN + HG), (2) High inorganic Nutrient and Low Grazing (HN + LG) and (3) under natural in situ conditions with Low inorganic Nutrient and High Grazing (LN + HG) during spring. Under phytoplankton bloom conditions (HN + LG), the bacterial use of freshly produced phytoplankton exudates as a source of carbon, estimated from 13C enrichment of bacterial lipids, contributed more than half of the total bacterial production. However, under conditions of high grazing pressure on phytoplankton with or without the addition of inorganic nutrients (HN + HG and LN + HG), the 13C enrichment of bacterial lipids was low compared with the high total bacterial production. BP therefore seems to depend mainly on freshly produced phytoplankton exudates during the early phase of phytoplankton bloom period. However, BP seems mainly relying on recycled carbon from viral lysis and predators under high grazing pressure.

International audience; Few studies on the consequences of future global warming and increased ultraviolet-B radiation (UVBR, 280-320nm) have been carried out at the food web scale and very few have considered the effect of the combination of these two climatic stressors. The single and combined effect of 3°C warming and 20% increased UVBR on planktonic carbon and nitrogen dynamics was investigated during a 10-day mesocosm experiment in coastal Mediterranean waters. Planktonic organisms from Thau Lagoon were sampled and incubated into eight in situ moored 2000L mesocosms and exposed to 4 different temperature and light conditions in duplicates; 1) natural light and temperature conditions; 2) +3°C above in situ water temperature; 3) +20% above incident UVBR, and 4) simultaneous +3°C and +20% above natural conditions. Compared to the natural in situ temperature and light conditions, increasing UVBR alone reduced bacterial carbon production and biomass by an average of 20%, with some reduction in ammonium net production. Warming alone significantly reduced bacterial carbon production by about 40% as a consequence of a trophic cascade effect on bacterial biomass. Warming also increased phytoplankton carbon production and associated nitrate uptake rates by an average of 90% and 200%, respectively. Thus, the results showed a direct positive effect of temperature increase on phytoplankton metabolism and greater nutrient availability owing to the reduction in potential bacterial competition. The combination of temperature and increased UVBR significantly increased the autotrophic production but without accumulation of freshly produced particulate organic matter. This suggests an accumulation of dissolved organic matter under these climatic conditions.

Over half of the total nitrogen, phosphorus, silicate and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) loading was discharged from the Wile River into the Thau Lagoon waters within the first five days of what was considered to be the autumn flash flood period. Such loads represented about 8% and 3% of the yearly averaged total nitrogen and phosphorus load in Thau Lagoon, respectively. Although this event affected >20% of the total lagoon volume, river trace metal loads contributed apparently only weakly to the increase in labile trace metal concentrations in the lagoon surface waters. Differences between theoretical dilution values and observed values were also noticed for phosphate, silicate and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations. DOC losses (10-50%) mainly through flocculation, together with the substantial increases in some metallic contaminants such as Zn (from 6 to >30 mu g L-1) observed during the flash flood in saline lagoon waters, may have limited the carbon production of bacterial communities. The potential osmotic shock and the increase in turbidity may mainly explain the low phytoplankton C turnover rates (average of 0.02 h(-1)) measured in brackish waters (

Episodic river flash floods, characteristic of Mediterranean climates, are suspected to greatly affect the functioning of microbial food webs. For the first time, the abundance, biomass and diversities of microbial food web components were studied before and during 4 consecutive days after a flash flood that occurred in November 2008, in the surface waters of five stations along a salinity gradient from 20 to 36 in the Thau lagoon. Eukaryotic pico- and nanophytoplankton were discharged from the river into the lagoon and increased by 30- and 70-fold, respectively. Bacteria increased by only 2-fold in the lagoon, from around 4–8 × 106 cells ml−1, probably benefiting from river nutrient input. Chlorophyll a increased 4-fold, and pigment biomarkers showed that the dinophyceae, prasinophyceae and prymnesiophyceae were sensitive to the flood perturbation, whereas the bacillariophyceae, cryptophyceae and chlorophyceae were resistant and/or transported to the lagoon from the river. Predator responses were more complex as total heterotrophic flagellate abundance decreased slightly, whereas those of specific naked ciliates increased, particularly for Uronema sp. The flood also induced a specific change in diversity, from a community dominated by Strobilidium spiralis to a community dominated by Uronema sp. The tintinnid community was particularly sensitive to the flood event as the abundance of all species decreased greatly. The high increases in biomass, mainly brought by the river during the flood, could have eventually sedimented to the benthic layer and/or been transported further into the lagoon, supporting the pelagic food web, or have even been exported to the Mediterranean Sea.

New and regenerated production were estimated from nitrate, ammonium and urea uptake in the highly productive North Water region (NOW, northern Baffin Bay) during the late summer bloom and its decline in early autumn 1999. Nitrogen uptake rates decreased due to a significant 4-fold reduction of the average irradiance in the euphotic zone between these 2 periods. Nitrate availability also regulated the relative uptake of nitrate (ratio of nitrate uptake to total nitrogen uptake, or f-ratio) over spatial scales in early autumn. Stations located along the Greenland coast, which had relatively warm (-0.5°C) and saline (32.5) waters, had higher nitrate concentrations (153 vs. 51 mmol N m -2 ) and f-ratios (0.36 vs. 0.16) than those of stations located on the Canadian side, where the euphotic zone was relatively colder (-1.4°C) and less saline (30.6). The f-ratios were also corrected for nitrogen uptake by heterotrophic bacteria using the results from experiments that employed specific metabolic inhibitors. The corrected f-ratio range of 0.24 to 0.41 considered only the fraction of the nitrogen uptake due to phytoplankton in order to obtain a more accurate estimate of new production. Based on this range, new production varied from 203 to 346 and 85 to 145 mg C m -2 d -1 in late summer and early autumn, respectively. For the entire sampling period, averaged new production was 132 to 228 mg C m -2 d -1 ; however, when the dissolved form was included, we estimated that new production may double to between 262 and 452 mg C m -2 d -1 . This estimate illustrates that dissolved forms can be significant and need to be considered. When combining our results with those from the literature, new production in the NOW in 1998 - 99 amounted to between 143 and 152 g C m -2 yr -1 , suggesting that 60% of the total annual primary production may potentially be exported from the euphotic zone. This study completes the first annual time series of new production in a high-latitude ecosystem.

The influence of dissolved inorganic and organic nitrogen (DIN and DON) enrichments on pools of enzymes responsible for CO2 fixation by the Calvin-Benson (Rubisco) and beta-carboxylation pathways (beta-carboxylases) were studied in a natural plankton assemblage. The plankton community from a coastal Mediterranean lagoon were incubated in situ for 24 h with initially ammonium, nitrate and DON (taurine) enrichments and compared to a control without any enrichment. An increase of small picophytoplankton and diatom biomass was observed in the enriched inorganic nitrogen treatments 7 - 10 h after the initial enrichment. Phytoplankton biomass decreased in the control and under taurine enrichment suggesting an inorganic nitrogen limitation of phytoplankton growth.

During the ANTARES 3 cruise in the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean in October-November 1995, the surface waters of Kerguelen Islands plume, and the surface and deeper waters (30-60 m) along a transect on 62 degrees E from 48 degrees 36'8 to the ice edge (58 degrees 50'S), were sampled. The phytoplankton community was size-fractionated (2 mu m) and cell numbers, chlorophyll biomass and carbon assimilation, through Rubisco and beta-carboxylase activities, were characterized. The highest contribution of 2 mu m. The mixotrophic capacity of these small cells is proposed. From sampling stations of the Kerguelen plume, a relationship was observed between the Rubisco activity per picophytoplankton cell and apparent cell size, which varied with the sampled water masses. Moreover, a depth-dependent photoperiodicity of Rubisco activity per cell for