Bacterial response to glucose addition: growth and community structure in seawater microcosms from North Pacific Ocean

Abstract

Onboard microcosm experiments were conducted to assess how bacterial growth pattern and community structure changed by the addition of labile organic compound during the KH-14-2 cruise of R/V Hakuho Maru (Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, the University of Tokyo and JAMSTEC) in May–June 2014. Seawater samples were collected from the three diversified oceanic environments, Kuroshio Current, North Pacific Sub-polar Gyre (SPG), and North Pacific Sub-tropical Gyre (STG) in the western North Pacific Ocean, filtered, supplemented with glucose, and incubated at 23 ± 1 °C, ~ 4 °C, and 23 ± 1 °C, respectively. Untreated control microcosms were also maintained for all the sample types. Significant increases in cell counts and cell sizes were observed in Kuroshio Current and STG waters, whereas in SPG neither the counts nor the sizes changed, even after 120 h of incubation. At early stages of incubation, the classes Bacteroidia, Alphaproteobacteria, and Gammaproteobacteria were dominant in the Kuroshio Current and SPG samples, while the phyla Cyanobacteria and Proteobacteria in the STG samples. Over incubation periods between 60 and 96 h, some members of the class Gammaproteobacteria gradually dominated within which the genera Vibrio and Alteromonas became dominant in the Kuroshio Current and STG, respectively. No growth was detected for the microcosms with seawater from SPG, regardless of glucose amendment. It is concluded that depending on the environmental condition, certain different bacterial groups proliferated quickly and modified the community structures. Temperature significantly influenced the growth and succession, and ultimately the community structure of bacteria.