Control of heterotrophic prokaryotic abundance and growth rate in hypersaline planktonic environments

AME Aquatic Microbial Ecology Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsSpecials AME 34:193-206 (2004) - doi:10.3354/ame034193 Control of heterotrophic prokaryotic abundance and growth rate in hypersaline planktonic environments Josep M. Gasol1,*, Emilio O. Casamayor2, Ian Joint3, Kristine Garde4, Kim Gustavson4, Susana Benlloch5,6, Beatriz Díez1,7, Michael Schauer1,8, Ramon Massana1, Carlos Pedrós-Alió1 1Departament de Biología Marina i Oceanografia, Institut de Ciències del Mar-CMIMA, CSIC, Passeig Marítim de la Barceloneta 39-47, 08009 Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain 2Unitat de Limnologia-Departament de Biogeoquímica Aquàtica, Centre d¹Estudis Avançats de Blanes, CSIC, 17300 Blanes, Catalunya, Spain 3Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Prospect Place, The Hoe, Plymouth PL1 3DH, UK 4DHI Water and Environment, Agern Allé 11, Hørsholm 2970, Denmark 5Departamento de Microbiología, Universidad Miguel Hernández, 03550 Alicante, Spain Present addresses: 6Unidad de Investigación, Hospital General Universitario de Alicante, 03010 Alicante, Spain 7Divisió de Microbiología, Departament de Fisiologia, Genètica i Microbiología, Universitat d¹Alacant, 03080 Alacant, Spain 8Institute for Limnology, Austrian Academy of Sciences, 5310 Mondsee, Austria *Email: pepgasol@icm.csic.es ABSTRACT: The factors controlling prokaryote abundance and activity along salinity gradients were investigated in the Bras del Port solar saltern system (Alacant, Spain) in May 1999. Specific growth rates were high and prokaryote abundance relatively low at the lowest (seawater) salinities; the opposite was found at higher salinities. Experiments were carried out in representative salterns at salinities of 4 to 37%, to test whether prokaryote abundance and growth rate were (1) limited by inorganic or organic nutrients (nutrient addition experiments), (2) limited by cell abundance (dilution experiments), or (3) affected by zooplankton cascading down to affect the prokaryote predators. Low-salinity ponds were limited by organic nutrients, while high-salinity ponds responded slightly only to dilution. Zooplankton affected prokaryote growth rates particularly in the medium-salinity ponds. In the low salinity ponds, zooplankton effects were weak and probably indirect (through increased supply of organic matter). Neither organic matter limitation nor zooplankton predation pressure affected prokaryote development in the higher salinity ponds. We suggest that 3 types of functional communities occur in the same saltern system: (1) an active, substrate-limited community in the low salinity ponds; (2) an active, grazer-controlled community in the medium salinity ponds; and (3) a possibly dormant, probably substrate-limited, community in the high salinity ponds. However, the results at the highest salinities were equivocal, because the dilution manipulation had detrimental effects, artificially decreasing the contribution of the haloarchaea, which were essential contributors to the total activity in the saltern. Bacterial taxonomic community composition was also determined in these experiments by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analyses on 16S rRNA genes, and showed very small changes in community composition in the experimental manipulations. Together with the known microbial community structure and composition at differing salinities along the gradient, our results show that functional aspects of the microbial food web also vary between salterns. KEY WORDS: Solar salterns · Hypersaline · Bacteria · Haloarchaea · Nutrient limitation · Heterotrophic production Full article in pdf format PreviousExport citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in AME Vol. 34, No. 2. Online publication date: February 04, 2004 Print ISSN: 0948-3055; Online ISSN: 1616-1564 Copyright © 2004 Inter-Research.