Abstract
Phytoplankton are major contributors to labile organic matter in the upper ocean. Diverse heterotrophic bacteria successively metabolize these labile compounds and drive elemental biogeochemical cycling. We investigated the bioavailability of Synechococcus-derived organic matter (SOM) by estuarine and coastal microbes during 180-day dark incubations. Variations in organic carbon, inorganic nutrients, fluorescent dissolved organic matter (FDOM), and total/active microbial communities were monitored. The entire incubations could be partitioned into three phases (labeled I, II, and III) based on the total organic carbon (TOC) consumption rates of 6.38–7.01, 0.53–0.64, and 0.10–0.13 μmol C L–1 day–1, respectively. This corresponded with accumulation processes of NH4+, NO2–, and NO3–, respectively. One tryptophan-like (C1) and three humic-like (C2, C3, and C4) FDOM components were identified. The intensity variation of C1 followed bacterial growth activities, and C2, C3, and C4 displayed labile, semi-labile, and refractory DOM characteristics, respectively. Alphaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Actinobacteria dominated the quickly consumed process of SOM (phase I) coupled with a substantial amount of NH4+ generation. Thaumarchaeota became an abundant population with the highest activities in phase II, especially in the free-living size-fraction, and these organisms could perform chemoautotroph processes through the ammonia oxidation. Microbial populations frequently found in the dark ocean, even the deep sea, became abundant during phase III, in which Nitrospinae/Nitrospirae obtained energy through nitrite oxidation. Our results shed light on the transformation of different biological availability of organic carbon by coastal microorganisms which coupled with the regeneration of different form of inorganic nitrogen.
Highlights
Marine phytoplankton contribute to approximately one half of the global net primary production through photosynthesis (Field et al, 1998)
Synechococcus-derived organic matter was quickly consumed by bacteria during the 180-day incubations, and total organic carbon (TOC) concentration continually decreased from 148.9–153.5 to 75.2–85.9 μmol C L−1 in the SOM-addition groups and from 85.2–98.4 to 69.9– 83.1 μmol C L−1 in the control groups (Figure 2)
In the station S05 incubation system (Figure 2A), the TOC concentration decreased by 49.0 ± 4.8 μmol C L−1 with a consumption rate of 7.01 ± 0.29 μmol C L−1 day−1 in phase I
Summary
Marine phytoplankton contribute to approximately one half of the global net primary production through photosynthesis (Field et al, 1998). Heterotrophic bacteria determine the fate of this organic matter in the ocean, incorporating it into biomass (bacterial secondary production), respiring it back to CO2, or transforming the labile fraction into refractory fractions (Azam et al, 1983; Kirchman et al, 1991; Jiao et al, 2010; Sarmento et al, 2016). During these processes, heterotrophic bacteria drive the elemental cycles of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in the ocean (Dyhrman et al, 2007; Falkowski et al, 2008; Hutchins and Fu, 2017). Rapid growth and accumulation of phytoplankton biomass during blooms require the transformation of a large number of inorganic nutrients into organic forms, which directly leads to marked changes in surrounding environmental conditions including depleted N/P inorganic nutrient levels, removal of CO2, and super-saturation of O2 (Cloern, 1996; Mahadevan et al, 2012)
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