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In the global context of seawater deoxygenation triggered by climate change and anthropogenic activities, changes in redox gradients impacting biogeochemical transformations of pollutants, such as mercury, become more likely. Being the largest anoxic basin worldwide, with high concentrations of the potent neurotoxic methylmercury (MeHg), the Black Sea is an ideal natural laboratory to provide new insights about the link between dissolved oxygen concentration and hgcAB gene-carrying (hgc+) microorganisms involved in the formation of MeHg. We combined geochemical and microbial approaches to assess the effect of vertical redox gradients on abundance, diversity, and metabolic potential of hgc+ microorganisms in the Black Sea water column. The abundance of hgcA genes [congruently estimated by quantitative PCR (qPCR) and metagenomics] correlated with MeHg concentration, both maximal in the upper part of the anoxic water. Besides the predominant Desulfobacterales, hgc+ microorganisms belonged to a unique assemblage of diverse—previously underappreciated—anaerobic fermenters from Anaerolineales, Phycisphaerae (characteristic of the anoxic and sulfidic zone), Kiritimatiellales, and Bacteroidales (characteristic of the suboxic zone). The metabolic versatility of Desulfobacterota differed from strict sulfate reduction in the anoxic water to reduction of various electron acceptors in the suboxic water. Linking microbial activity and contaminant concentration in environmental studies is rare due to the complexity of biological pathways. In this study, we disentangle the role of oxygen in shaping the distribution of Hg-methylating microorganisms consistently with MeHg concentration, and we highlight their taxonomic and metabolic niche partitioning across redox gradients, improving the prediction of the response of marine communities to the expansion of oxygen-deficient zones. IMPORTANCE Methylmercury (MeHg) is a neurotoxin detected at high conc

For aquatic scientists mesocosm experiments are important tools for hypothesis testing as they offer a compromise between experimental control and realism. Here we present a new mesocosm infrastructure—SITES AquaNET—located in five lakes connected to field stations in Sweden that cover a ~760 km latitudinal gradient. SITES AquaNet overcomes major hindrances in aquatic experimental research through: (i) openness to the scientific community, (ii) the potential to implement coordinated experiments across sites and time, and (iii) high-frequency measurements (temperature, photosynthetic photon flux density, turbidity and dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll a and phycocyanin concentrations) with an autonomous sensor system. Moreover, the infrastructure provides operational guidance and sensor expertise from technical staff, and connections to a multi-layered monitoring programme (“SITES Water”) for each lake. This enables ecological observations from whole lake ecosystems to be compared with experimental studies aiming at disentangling major drivers and mechanisms underlying observed changes. Here we describe the technical properties of the infrastructure along with possibilities for experimental manipulations to tackle pressing issues in aquatic ecology and global change science. As a proof of concept, we also present a first mesocosm experiment across all five field sites with a cross-factorial design to evaluate responses of the sensor measurements to press/bottom-up (constant light reduction) and pulse/top-down (temporary fish predation) disturbances. This demonstrates the suitability of the infrastructure and autonomous sensor system to host modularized experiments and exemplifies the power and advantages of the approach to integrate a network of mecsocosm facilities with manageable costs across large geographic areas.

The reconstruction of bacterial and archaeal genomes from shotgun metagenomes has enabled insights into the ecology and evolution of environmental and host-associated microbiomes. Here we applied this approach to >10,000 metagenomes collected from diverse habitats covering all of Earth’s continents and oceans, including metagenomes from human and animal hosts, engineered environments, and natural and agricultural soils, to capture extant microbial, metabolic and functional potential. This comprehensive catalog includes 52,515 metagenome-assembled genomes representing 12,556 novel candidate species-level operational taxonomic units spanning 135 phyla. The catalog expands the known phylogenetic diversity of bacteria and archaea by 44% and is broadly available for streamlined comparative analyses, interactive exploration, metabolic modeling and bulk download. We demonstrate the utility of this collection for understanding secondary-metabolite biosynthetic potential and for resolving thousands of new host linkages to uncultivated viruses. This resource underscores the value of genome-centric approaches for revealing genomic properties of uncultivated microorganisms that affect ecosystem processes.

In the version of this article initially published, four people were missing from the alphabetical list of IMG/M Data Consortium members: Lauren V. Alteio of the Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria; Jeffrey L. Blanchard of the Biology Department, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA; Kristen M. DeAngelis of the Department of Microbiology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA; and William Rodriguez-Reillo of the Research Computing Division, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. The error has been corrected in the PDF and HTML versions of the article.

This paper was originally published under standard Springer Nature copyright (© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature America, Inc.). It is now available as an open-access paper under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. The error has been corrected in the print, HTML and PDF versions of the article.

A prerequisite to improve the predictability of microbial community dynamics is to understand the mechanisms of microbial assembly. To study factors that contribute to microbial community assembly, we examined the temporal dynamics of genes in five aquatic metagenome time-series, originating from marine offshore or coastal sites and one lake. With this trait-based approach we expected to find gene-specific patterns of temporal allele variability that depended on the seasonal metacommunity size of carrier-taxa and the variability of the milieu and the substrates to which the resulting proteins were exposed. In more detail, we hypothesized that a larger seasonal metacommunity size would result in increased temporal variability of functional units (i.e., gene alleles), as shown previously for taxonomic units. We further hypothesized that multicopy genes would feature higher temporal variability than single-copy genes, as gene multiplication can result from high variability in substrate quality and quantity. Finally, we hypothesized that direct exposure of proteins to the extracellular environment would result in increased temporal variability of the respective gene compared to intracellular proteins that are less exposed to environmental fluctuations. The first two hypotheses were confirmed in all data sets, while significant effects of the subcellular location of gene products was only seen in three of the five time-series. The gene with the highest allele variability throughout all data sets was an iron transporter, also representing a target for phage infection. Previous work has emphasized the role of phage–prokaryote interactions as a major driver of microbial diversity. Our finding therefore points to a potentially important role of iron transporter-mediated phage infections for the assembly and maintenance of diversity in aquatic prokaryotes., QCR 20201203AIP

Life in water-filled bedrock fissures in the continental deep biosphere is broadly constrained by energy and nutrient availability. Although these communities are alive, robust studies comparing active populations and metabolic processes across deep aquifers are lacking. This study analyzed three oligotrophic Fennoscandian Shield groundwaters, two “modern marine” waters that are replenished with organic carbon from the Baltic Sea and are likely less than 20 years old (171.3 and 415.4m below sea level) and an extremely oligotrophic “thoroughly mixed” water (448.8m below sea level) of unknown age that is composed of very old saline and marine waters. Cells were captured either using a sampling device that rapidly fixed RNA under in situ conditions or by filtering flowing groundwater over an extended period before fixation. Comparison of metatranscriptomes between the methods showed statistically similar transcript profiles for the respective water types, and they were analyzed as biological replicates. Study of the small subunit (SSU) rRNA confirmed active populations from all three domains of life, with many potentially novel unclassified populations present. Statistically supported differences between communities included heterotrophic sulfate-reducing bacteria in the modern marine water at 171.3m below sea level that has a higher organic carbon content than do largely autotrophic populations in the H2- and CO2-fed thoroughly mixed water. While this modern marine water had signatures of methanogenesis, syntrophic populations were predominantly in the thoroughly mixed water. The study provides a first statistical evaluation of differences in the active microbial communities in groundwaters differentially fed by organic carbon or “geogases.” IMPORTANCE Despite being separated from the photosynthesis-driven surface by both distance and time, the deep biosphere is an important driver for the earth’s carbon and energy cycles. However, due to the difficulties in gaining a

During austral spring and summer, the coastal Antarctic experiences a sharp increase in primary production and a steepening of biotic and abiotic gradients that result from increased solar radiation and retreating sea ice. In one of the largest seasonally ice‐free regions, the Amundsen Sea Polynya, pelagic samples were collected from 15 sites during a massive Phaeocystis antarctica bloom in 2010/2011. Along with a suite of other biotic and abiotic measurements, bacterioplankton were collected and analyzed for community structure by pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. The aims were to identify patterns in diversity and composition of heterotrophic bacterioplankton and to test mechanistic hypotheses for explaining these differences along variations in depth, water mass, phytoplankton biomass, and organic and inorganic nutrients. The overall goal was to clarify the relationship between primary producers and bacterioplankton community structure in the Southern Ocean. Results suggested that both epipelagic and mesopelagic bacterioplankton communities were structured by phytoplankton blooming in the euphotic zone. As chlorophyll a (chl‐a) increased in surface waters, the abundance of surface bacterioplankton increased, but their diversity decreased. Similarity in bacterioplankton community composition between surface‐water sites increased as the bloom progressed, suggesting that algal blooms may homogenize surface‐water bacterioplankton communities at larger spatial scales. Below the euphotic zone, the opposite relationship was found. Mesopelagic bacterioplankton diversity increased with increasing chl‐a in the overlying surface waters. This shift may be promoted by several factors including local increase in organic and inorganic nutrients from particles sinking out of the euphotic zone, an increase in niche differentiation associated with the particle flux, interactions with deep‐dwelling macrozooplankton, and release from competition with primary producers. Additional

Although the continental deep biosphere is estimated to contain 2 to 19% of the earth’s total biomass, it is still one of the least understood ecosystems on the planet. A key question for the terrestrial deep biosphere is the viability and activity of the large diversity of microorganisms present. This work shows that the microbial populations in aquifers with different chemistry and depth below the surface are viable and active and their diversity decreased with depth below the surface. Quantitative PCR and high throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing revealed no significant differences in 16S rRNA gene abundances and microbial diversity between total and viable communities. This suggested that the populations were adapted to the prevailing oligotrophic conditions and that non-viable cells are rapidly degraded and recycled into new biomass. In addition, in situ fixed RNA transcripts aligned to the three domains of life, supporting activity within these communities. Many of the SSU rRNA transcripts grouped within recently described candidate phyla or could not be mapped to known branches on the tree of life, suggesting that a large portion of the active biota in the deep biosphere remains unexplored. Despite the extremely oligotrophic conditions, mRNA transcripts revealed a diverse range of metabolic strategies carried out by different taxa. These results emphasize the need to further investigate microbial activities in the deep biosphere and the importance of unclassified and candidate phyla in this environment.

The continental subsurface is suggested to contain a significant part of the earth’s total biomass. However, due to the difficulty of sampling, the deep subsurface is still one of the least understood ecosystems. Therefore, microorganisms inhabiting this environment might profoundly influence the global nutrient and energy cycles. In this study, in situ fixed RNA transcripts from two deep continental groundwaters from the Äspö Hard Rock Laboratory (a Baltic Sea-influenced water with a residence time of < 20 years, defined as “modern marine,” and an “old saline” groundwater with a residence time of thousands of years) were subjected to metatranscriptome sequencing. Although small subunit (SSU) rRNA gene and mRNA transcripts aligned to all three domains of life, supporting activity within these community subsets, the data also suggested that the groundwaters were dominated by bacteria. Many of the SSU rRNA transcripts grouped within newly described candidate phyla or could not be mapped to known branches on the tree of life, suggesting that a large portion of the active biota in the deep biosphere remains unexplored. Despite the extremely oligotrophic conditions, mRNA transcripts revealed a diverse range of metabolic strategies that were carried out by multiple taxa in the modern marine water that is fed by organic carbon from the surface. In contrast, the carbon dioxide- and hydrogen-fed old saline water with a residence time of thousands of years predominantly showed the potential to carry out translation. This suggested these cells were active, but waiting until an energy source episodically becomes available. IMPORTANCE A newly designed sampling apparatus was used to fix RNA under in situ conditions in the deep continental biosphere and benchmarks a strategy for deep biosphere metatranscriptomic sequencing. This apparatus enabled the identification of active community members and the processes they carry out in this extremely oligotrophic environment. Thi

The continental deep biosphere is suggested to contain a substantial fraction of the earth’s total biomass and microorganisms inhabiting this environment likely have a substantial impact on biogeochemical cycles. However, the deep microbial community is still largely unknown and can be influenced by parameters such as temperature, pressure, water residence times, and chemistry of the waters. In this study, 21 boreholes representing a range of deep continental groundwaters from the Äspö Hard Rock Laboratory were subjected to high-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing to characterize how the different water types influence the microbial communities. Geochemical parameters showed the stability of the waters and allowed their classification into three groups. These were (i) waters influenced by infiltration from the Baltic Sea with a “modern marine (MM)” signature, (ii) a “thoroughly mixed (TM)” water containing groundwaters of several origins, and (iii) deep “old saline (OS)” waters. Decreasing microbial cell numbers positively correlated with depth. In addition, there was a stronger positive correlation between increased cell numbers and dissolved organic carbon for the MM compared to the OS waters. This supported that the MM waters depend on organic carbon infiltration from the Baltic Sea while the ancient saline waters were fed by “geogases” such as carbon dioxide and hydrogen. The 16S rRNA gene relative abundance of the studied groundwaters revealed different microbial community compositions. Interestingly, the TM water showed the highest dissimilarity compared to the other two water types, potentially due to the several contrasting water types contributing to this groundwater. The main identified microbial phyla in the groundwaters were Gammaproteobacteria, unclassified sequences, Campylobacterota (formerly Epsilonproteobacteria), Patescibacteria, Deltaproteobacteria, and Alphaproteobacteria. Many of these taxa are suggested to mediate ferric iron and nitrate reduct

The deep biosphere is the largest ‘bioreactor’ on earth, and microbes inhabiting this biome profoundly influence global nutrient and energy cycles. An important question for deep biosphere microbiology is whether or not specific populations are viable. To address this, we used quantitative PCR and high throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing of total and viable cells (i.e. with an intact cellular membrane) from three groundwaters with different ages and chemical constituents. There were no statistically significant differences in 16S rRNA gene abundances and microbial diversity between total and viable communities. This suggests that populations were adapted to prevailing oligotrophic conditions and that non-viable cells are rapidly degraded and recycled into new biomass. With higher concentrations of organic carbon, the modern marine and undefined mixed waters hosted a community with a larger range of predicted growth strategies than the ultra-oligotrophic old saline water. These strategies included fermentative and potentially symbiotic lifestyles by candidate phyla that typically have streamlined genomes. In contrast, the old saline waters had more 16S rRNA gene sequences in previously cultured lineages able to oxidize hydrogen and fix carbon dioxide. This matches the paradigm of a hydrogen and carbon dioxide-fed chemolithoautotrophic deep biosphere.

Syntrophy among Archaea and Bacteria facilitates the anaerobic degradation of organic compounds to CH4 and CO2. Particularly during aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbon mineralization, as in the case of crude oil reservoirs and petroleum-contaminated sediments, metabolic interactions between obligate mutualistic microbial partners are of central importance. Using micromanipulation combined with shotgun metagenomic approaches, we describe the genomes of complex consortia within short-chain alkane-degrading cultures operating under methanogenic conditions. Metabolic reconstruction revealed that only a small fraction of genes in the metagenome-assembled genomes encode the capacity for fermentation of alkanes facilitated by energy conservation linked to H2 metabolism. Instead, the presence of inferred lifestyles based on scavenging anabolic products and intermediate fermentation products derived from detrital biomass was a common feature. Additionally, inferred auxotrophy for vitamins and amino acids suggests that the hydrocarbon-degrading microbial assemblages are structured and maintained by multiple interactions beyond the canonical H2-producing and syntrophic alkane degrader-methanogen partnership. Compared to previous work, our report points to a higher order of complexity in microbial consortia engaged in anaerobic hydrocarbon transformation.IMPORTANCE Microbial interactions between Archaea and Bacteria mediate many important chemical transformations in the biosphere from degrading abundant polymers to synthesis of toxic compounds. Two of the most pressing issues in microbial interactions are how consortia are established and how we can modulate these microbial communities to express desirable functions. Here, we propose that public goods (i.e., metabolites of high energy demand in biosynthesis) facilitate energy conservation for life under energy-limited conditions and determine the assembly and function of the consortia. Our report suggests that an understanding o

The number of icebergs produced from ice-shelf disintegration has increased over the past decade in Antarctica. These drifting icebergs mix the water column, influence stratification and nutrient condition, and can affect local productivity and food web composition. Data on whether icebergs affect bacterioplankton function and composition are scarce, however. We assessed the influence of iceberg drift on bacterial community composition and on their ability to exploit carbon substrates during summer in the coastal Southern Ocean. An elevated bacterial production and a different community composition were observed in iceberg-influenced waters relative to the undisturbed water column nearby. These major differences were confirmed in short-term incubations with bromodeoxyuridine followed by CARD-FISH. Furthermore, one-week bottle incubations amended with inorganic nutrients and carbon substrates (a mix of substrates, glutamine, N-acetylglucosamine, or pyruvate) revealed contrasting capacity of bacterioplankton to utilize specific carbon substrates in the iceberg-influenced waters compared with the undisturbed site. Our study demonstrates that the hydrographical perturbations introduced by a drifting iceberg can affect activity, composition, and substrate utilization capability of marine bacterioplankton. Consequently, in a context of global warming, increased frequency of drifting icebergs in polar regions holds the potential to affect carbon and nutrient biogeochemistry at local and possibly regional scales.

Polynyas, or recurring areas of seasonally open water surrounded by sea ice, are foci for energy and material transfer between the atmosphere and the polar ocean. They are also climate sensitive, with both sea ice extent and glacial melt influencing their productivity. The Amundsen Sea Polynya (ASP) is the greenest polynya in the Southern Ocean, with summertime chlorophyll a concentrations exceeding 20 mu g L-1. During the Amundsen Sea Polynya International Research Expedition (ASPIRE) in austral summer 2010-11, we aimed to determine the fate of this high algal productivity. We collected water column profiles for total dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and nutrients, particulate and dissolved organic matter, chlorophyll a, mesozoo-plankton, and microbial biomass to make a carbon budget for this ecosystem. We also measured primary and secondary production, community respiration rates, vertical particle flux and fecal pellet production and grazing. With observations arranged along a gradient of increasing integrated dissolved inorganic nitrogen drawdown (Delta DIN; 0.027-0.74 mol N m(-2)), changes in DIC in the upper water column (ranging from 0.2 to 4.7 mol C m(-2)) and gas exchange (0-1.7 mol C m(-2)) were combined to estimate early season net community production (sNCP; 0.2-5.9 mol C m(-2)) and then compared to organic matter inventories to estimate export. From a phytoplankton bloom dominated by Phaeocystis antarctica, a high fraction (up to similar to 60%) of sNCP was exported to sub-euphotic depths. Microbial respiration remineralized much of this export in the mid waters. Comparisons to short-term (2-3 days) drifting traps and a year-long moored sediment trap capturing the downward flux confirmed that a relatively high fraction (3-6%) of the export from similar to 100 m made it through the mid waters to depth. We discuss the climate-sensitive nature of these carbon fluxes, in light of the changing sea ice cover and melting ice sheets in the region.

The population genome of an uncultured bacterium assigned to the Campylobacterales (Epsilonproteobacteria) was reconstructed from a metagenome dataset obtained by whole-genome shotgun pyrosequencing. Genomic DNA was extracted from a sulfate-reducing, m-xylene-mineralizing enrichment culture isolated from groundwater of a benzene-contaminated sulfidic aquifer. The identical epsilonproteobacterial phylotype has previously been detected in toluene- or benzene-mineralizing, sulfate-reducing consortia enriched from the same site. Previous stable isotope probing (SIP) experiments with 13C6-labeled benzene suggested that this phylotype assimilates benzene-derived carbon in a syntrophic benzene-mineralizing consortium that uses sulfate as terminal electron acceptor. However, the type of energy metabolism and the ecophysiological function of this epsilonproteobacterium within aromatic hydrocarbon-degrading consortia and in the sulfidic aquifer are poorly understood. Annotation of the epsilonproteobacterial population genome suggests that the bacterium plays a key role in sulfur cycling as indicated by the presence of an sqr gene encoding a sulfide quinone oxidoreductase and psr genes encoding a polysulfide reductase. It may gain energy by using sulfide or hydrogen/formate as electron donors. Polysulfide, fumarate, as well as oxygen are potential electron acceptors. Auto- or mixotrophic carbon metabolism seems plausible since a complete reductive citric acid cycle was detected. Thus the bacterium can thrive in pristine groundwater as well as in hydrocarbon-contaminated aquifers. In hydrocarbon-contaminated sulfidic habitats, the epsilonproteobacterium may generate energy by coupling the oxidation of hydrogen or formate and highly abundant sulfide with the reduction of fumarate and/or polysulfide, accompanied by efficient assimilation of acetate produced during fermentation or incomplete oxidation of hydrocarbons. The highly efficient assimilation of acetate was recently demon

Next generation sequencing technologies for in depth analyses of complex microbial communities rely on rational primer design based on up-to-date reference databases. Most of the 16S rRNA-gene based analyses of environmental Archaea community composition use PCR primers developed from small data sets several years ago, making an update long overdue. Here we present a new set of archaeal primers targeting the 16S rRNA gene designed from 8500 aligned archaeal sequences in the SILVA database. The primers 340F-1000R showed a high archaeal specificity (<1% bacteria amplification) covering 93 and 97% of available sequences for Crenarchaeota and Euryarchaeota respectively. In silico tests of the primers revealed at least 38% higher coverage for Archaea compared to other commonly used primers. Empirical tests with clone libraries confirmed the high specificity of the primer pair to Archaea in three biomes: surface waters in the Arctic Ocean, the pelagic zone of a temperate lake and a methanogenic bioreactor. The clone libraries featured both Euryarchaeota and Crenarchaeota in variable proportions and revealed dramatic differences in the archaeal community composition and minimal phylogenetic overlap between samples., Gantner, Stephan Andersson, Anders F Alonso-Saez, Laura Bertilsson, Stefan Evaluation Studies Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Netherlands Journal of microbiological methods J Microbiol Methods. 2011 Jan;84(1):12-8. Epub 2010 Oct 19.QC 20120217

Variation in traits causes bacterial populations to respond in contrasting ways to environmental drivers. Learning about this will help us understand the ecology of individual populations in complex ecosystems. We used 454 pyrosequencing of the hypervariable region V6 of the 16S rRNA gene to study seasonal dynamics in Baltic Sea bacterioplankton communities, and link community and population changes to biological and chemical factors. Surface samples were collected from May to October 2003 and in May 2004 at the Landsort Deep in the central Baltic Sea Proper. The analysis rendered, on average, 20 200 sequence reads for each of the eight samples analyzed, providing the first detailed description of Baltic Sea bacterial communities. Community composition varied dramatically over time, supporting the idea of strong temporal shifts in bacterioplankton assemblages, and clustered according to season (including two May samples from consecutive years), suggesting repeatable seasonal succession. Overall, community change was most highly correlated with change in phosphorus concentration and temperature. Individual bacterial populations were also identified that tightly co-varied with different Cyanobacteria populations. Comparing the abundance profiles of operational taxonomic units at different phylogenetic distances revealed a weak but significant negative correlation between abundance profile similarity and genetic distance, potentially reflecting habitat filtering of evolutionarily conserved functional traits in the studied bacterioplankton., QC 20120210

Iron(III) photoreduction and the responses of phytoplankton under ultraviolet (UV) and photosynthetically available radiation (PAR) were investigated with the presence of hydroxycarboxylic acid (glucaric acid (GA), a model compound for organic acids excreted by phytoplankton). The incubation experiments were carried out on board using seawater samples collected in the location of the winter ice edge (WIE) and the spring ice edge (SIE) of the Southern Ocean. In this paper, we focus on the results of experiment in WIE. Throughout the experiments, dissolved Fe(II), major nutrients and in vivo fluorescence were monitored regularly. In addition, Chl-a, POC/PON, cell densities of phytoplankton and bacteria, bacterial production, organic peroxide, hydrogen peroxide and total CO2 were measured. The results from the WIE show that iron enrichment had a substantial effect on phytoplankton growth rate. Fe(III) addition in the presence of GA (FeGA) gave higher Fe(II) concentration and higher growth rate of phytoplankton than those in controls. Our results suggest that hydroxycarboxylic acid had a significant chemical and biological impact. The presence of GA influenced iron photochemistry and iron availability to phytoplankton. Phytoplankton growth responses to iron enrichments in incubations under UV and PAR were completely dissimilar. It seems that FeGA addition prominently changes the harmful effect of UV on the phytoplankton population. This study provides preliminary information on how the photoreduction of iron(III) and the phytoplankton growth are affected by iron enrichment in the presence of hydroxycarboxylic acid. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Bacterial abundance and production were studied in different zones in the Southern Ocean (39-62°S, 4-14°E) during a cruise in December-January 1997/1998. The role of potential growth limitation of bacteria due to limited availability of organic carbon (glucose) or inorganic N and P was studied in parallel. A positive correlation between surface water temperatures (-2 to 18°C) and bacterial abundance (

The influence of solar radiation on the ability of dissolved organic matter (DOM) to support bacterial growth, was studied in the eastern Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean during the SWEDARP 1997/1998 cruise with SA Agulhas December 1997-February 1998. Vertical profiles of water samples (2-3000 m) were obtained from the Spring Ice Edge (SIE, 60°S, high chlorophyll-a) and from the Winter Ice Edge (WIE, 56°S, low chlorophyll-a) areas. Filter-sterilized water from each area and depth was incubated under natural solar radiation and in the dark for comparison. Photobleaching of humic substance fluorescence occurred in all studied water samples. The bleaching was typically larger in the initially more fluorescent deep waters, compared to the low-fluorescent surface waters. Both the irradiated water and the dark controls were re-inoculated with a mixed bacterial inoculum from the initially sampled water. Bacterial growth (accumulating cells) and bacterial production (protein synthesis) were monitored during a 16-19 day incubation of these cultures at near in situ temperature (2°C). Bacterial growth in cultures prepared from SIE water was largest at the surface (2-25 m), while the growth in corresponding cultures from the WIE did not vary much over depth. In contrast to the observed photobleaching, no clear effects of the irradiation on the ability of the DOM to support bacterial growth could be observed in either of the experiments. Hence, the degradation of fluorescent structures and other photochemical alterations of the organic matter did not have a major effect on the total pool of biodegradable organic substrates. The lack of effects of photoreactions on bacterial growth potential in the present study disagrees with the short-term bacterial growth response observed in other oceanic environments. This could be due to the different experimental approaches employed (short-vs. long-term incubations) or may indicate that the impact of photoreactions on bacterial growth

1. Trophic polymorphism is a common phenomenon in many species. Trade-offs in foraging efficiency on different resources are thought to be a primary cause of such polymorphism. 2. To test for a trade-off in foraging efficiency perch (Perca fluviatilis L.) were used from a population that differs in morphology between the littoral and pelagic habitat of a lake. Indoor aquarium experiments were performed with three different prey types in two different environments. It was predicted that the morphology of the individual would affect foraging efficiency in the different environments and on the different prey types through search and attack behaviour. 3. Overall the foraging efficiency of perch was found to be related to individual morphology. A connection was also found between individual morphology and search and attack behaviour. Search behaviour but not attack behaviour was affected by the structure in the aquaria. Furthermore our results show that there are relations between search behaviour and detection rates and between attack behaviour and attack success. 4. Our results give a mechanistic explanation for the differences in foraging efficiency between littoral and pelagic perch. These differences are probably driven by a functional trade-off between foraging performance and general body form.

We studied seasonal variability in photodegradation of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) resulting from artificial ultraviolet-A (UV-A) and UV-B irradiation. Water samples were taken approximately monthly from the surface layers of two oligotrophic lakes with contrasting humic content, situated in southern Sweden. Lake water was filter-sterilized (0.2 μm) and exposed to artificial UV radiation in quartz tubes. Potential DOC photodegradation, measured as a photoproduction of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and oxalic, malonic, formic, and acetic acid in irradiated samples, was observed throughout the sampling period. In addition, exposure to UV radiation resulted in a decrease in DOC, absorbance, and humic substance fluorescence. The photoproduction of DIC and the low molecular weight (LMW) organic acids varied seasonally, being generally higher in winter and spring (December-May), while DOC appeared to become less photoreactive after the extensive exposure to solar radiation during summer. Production rates of both DIC and LMW organic acids were approximately eight times higher in the humic lake despite that the DOC concentration was only two times higher than in the clearwater lake. This is most probably due to the high input of allochthonous DOC and the resulting higher absorbance to DOC ratio in the humic system. Furthermore, the longer hydraulic residence time in the clearwater system could have resulted in an accumulation of residual DOC, recalcitrant to further photodegradation.

We studied seasonal variability in photodegradation of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) resulting from artificial ultraviolet-A (UV-A) and UV-B irradiation. Water samples were taken approximately monthly from the surface layers of two oligotrophic lakes with contrasting humic content, situated in southern Sweden. Lake water was filter-sterilized (0.2 mum) and exposed to artificial UV radiation in quartz tubes. Potential DOC photodegradation, measured as a photoproduction of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and oxalic, malonic, formic, and acetic acid in irradiated samples, was observed throughout the sampling period. In addition, exposure to UV radiation resulted in a decrease in DOC, absorbance, and humic substance fluorescence. The photoproduction of DIC and the low molecular weight (LMW) organic acids varied seasonally, being generally higher in winter and spring (December-May), while DOC appeared to become less photoreactive after the extensive exposure to solar radiation during summer. Production rates of both DIC and LMW organic acids were approximately eight times higher in the humic lake despite that the DOC concentration was only two times higher than in the clearwater lake. This is most probably due to the high input of allochthonous DOC and the resulting higher absorbance to DOC ratio in the humic system. Furthermore, the longer hydraulic residence time in the clearwater system could have resulted in an accumulation of residual DOC, recalcitrant to further photodegradation.

In a survey of photochemical transformation of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in lake water, we found photochemical production of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and low molecular weight carboxylic acids (oxalic, malonic, formic, and acetic acid), upon simulated solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation exposure of filter-sterilized surface water from 38 investigated lakes. Given the large variability in water chemistry of the studied systems, we suggest that these photoproducts are universally produced in sunlight exposed lake water. The measured production of carboxylic acid carbon corresponded to 34.4% (median) of the produced DIC. The production of DIC and carboxylic acids during 8 h of mild UV irradiation corresponded to an average of 4.7% (SD 2.9) of the total dissolved organic carbon pool. Hence, photochemical degradation could be a major sink for DOM in the surface layer of lakes. All photoreaction rates were strongly correlated to the total radiation absorbed during UV exposure (r(2) > 0.8), which depends mainly on amount of colored DOM in the water. The variability in DIC production after normalizing for absorbed radiation energy could partly be attributed to general water chemistry parameters (e.g., pH, iron concentration, conductivity).