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Bacterioplankton play a key role in marine waters facilitating processes important for carbon cycling. However, the influence of specific bacterial populations and environmental conditions on bacterioplankton community performance remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to identify drivers of bacterioplankton community functions, taking into account the variability in community composition and environmental conditions over seasons, in two contrasting coastal systems. A Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) analysis of the biological and chemical data obtained from surface waters over a full year indicated that specific bacterial populations were linked to measured functions. Namely, Synechococcus (Cyanobacteria) was strongly correlated with protease activity. Both function and community composition showed seasonal variation. However, the pattern of substrate utilization capacity could not be directly linked to the community dynamics. The overall importance of dissolved organic matter (DOM) parameters in the LASSO models indicate that bacterioplankton respond to the present substrate landscape, with a particular importance of nitrogenous DOM. The identification of common drivers of bacterioplankton community functions in two different systems indicates that the drivers may be of broader relevance in coastal temperate waters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased anthropogenic CO2 emissions are expected to cause a drop in oceanic pH of c. 0.4 units within this century. According to current assessments, the consequences of this are limited for oceanic Cyanobacteria, and absent for viruses. We investigated the effect of pH on the life history of cyanophage S-PM2 and its host, Synechococcus sp. WH7803, at current pH concentrations and at predicted future concentrations. We identified significant negative effects of decreasing pH on Synechococcus growth rate, with profound negative implications for S-PM2 biogenesis and its infection cycle. The duration of the S-PM2 eclipse period increased significantly with decreasing pH. In contrast, the latent period was shorter at pH 7.6 than at pH 8, coinciding with a reduction in S-PM2 burst size from 20.1 ± 3.2 progeny phages per cell at pH 8 to 5.68 ± 4.4 progeny phages per cell at pH 7.6. At pH 7, there was no detectable progeny release. The extracellular stage of S-PM2 was insensitive to pH changes, but sensitive to light, with significant loss in infectivity (0.35-0.38 day−1) at relatively low irradiances (> 130 μmol photon m−2 s−1). Overall, the results suggest that pH has significant influence on cyanobacterial growth with important implications for the interactions between Cyanobacteria and their viruses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]