Abstract
A process of global importance in carbon cycling is the remineralization of algae biomass by heterotrophic bacteria, most notably during massive marine algae blooms. Such blooms can trigger secondary blooms of planktonic bacteria that consist of swift successions of distinct bacterial clades, most prominently members of the Flavobacteriia, Gammaproteobacteria and the alphaproteobacterial Roseobacter clade. We investigated such successions during spring phytoplankton blooms in the southern North Sea (German Bight) for four consecutive years. Dense sampling and high-resolution taxonomic analyses allowed the detection of recurring patterns down to the genus level. Metagenome analyses also revealed recurrent patterns at the functional level, in particular with respect to algal polysaccharide degradation genes. We, therefore, hypothesize that even though there is substantial inter-annual variation between spring phytoplankton blooms, the accompanying succession of bacterial clades is largely governed by deterministic principles such as substrate-induced forcing.
Highlights
Pelagic zones of the world’s oceans seemingly constitute rather homogenous habitats, they feature enough spatial and temporal variation to support a large number of species with distinct niches
Continuous biodiversity studies at long-term sampling stations have started to reveal discernible deterministic patterns within marine microbial plankton communities (see Fuhrman et al (2015) for a recent review). This is true for less dynamic oligotrophic oceanic regions that are dominated by the members of the alphaproteobacterial Pelagibacteriaceae (SAR11 clade) and the cyanobacterial Prochlorococcaceae (Prochlorococcus marinus)
The samples were taken at Helgoland Island about 40 km offshore in the southeastern North Sea in the German Bight at the station ’Kabeltonne’ (54 ̊ 11.3’ N, 7 ̊ 54.0’ E; Figure 1) between the main island and the minor island, Dune (German for ’dune’)
Summary
Pelagic zones of the world’s oceans seemingly constitute rather homogenous habitats, they feature enough spatial and temporal variation to support a large number of species with distinct niches. Continuous biodiversity studies at long-term sampling stations have started to reveal discernible deterministic patterns within marine microbial plankton communities (see Fuhrman et al (2015) for a recent review). This is true for less dynamic oligotrophic oceanic regions that are dominated by the members of the alphaproteobacterial Pelagibacteriaceae (SAR11 clade) and the cyanobacterial Prochlorococcaceae (Prochlorococcus marinus). More dynamic eutrophic coastal regions are subject to frequent system perturbations and seldom in a state of equilibrium This can lead to apparently stochastic changes in bacterioplankton community composition. Owing to the lack of such intensively sampled long-term time series
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