The bacterial diversity and community structure within both organically enriched and adjacent, unimpacted, near-shore marine sediments at two fish farms in southern Tasmania, Australia, was examined using 16S rRNA gene clone library construction and analysis. Sediments at both caged and reference sites at both farms showed a very high level of microbial diversity. Over 900 clones were analysed and grouped into 631 unique phylotypes. Reference sites were dominated by Delta- and Gammaproteobacteria and the Cytophaga-Flavobacteria-Bacteroides group. Cage site sediments were also dominated by these phylotypes, as well as members of the Alpha- and Epsilonproteobacteria. Diversity and coverage indices indicated that the actual diversity of the sediments was much greater than that detected, despite a large sampling effort. All libraries were shown to be statistically different from one another (P < 0.05). Many phylotypes did not group with cultured bacteria, but grouped with other environmental clones from a wide array of marine benthic environments. Diversity and evenness indices suggested that although both parameters changed after farming, diverse communities were present in all sediments. The response of the microbial community to organic load suggested that random, rather than predictable, succession events determine community composition and diversity, and that sediment type may influence bacterial community and sediment response to organic perturbation.

Chemotherapeutic agents have been banned for disease management in aquaculture systems due to the emergence of antibiotic resistance gene and enduring residual effects in the environments. Instead, microbial interventions in sustainable aquaculture have been proposed, and among them, the most popular and practical approach is the use of probiotics. A range of microorganisms have been used so far as probiotics, which include Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, yeast, bacteriophages, and unicellular algae. The results are satisfactory and promising; however, to combat the latest infectious diseases, the search for a new strain for probiotics is essential. Marine actinobacteria were designated as the chemical factory a long time ago, and quite a large number of chemical substances have been isolated to date. The potent actinobacterial genera are Streptomyces; Micromonospora; and a novel, recently described genus, Salinispora. Despite the existence of all the significant features of a good probiont, actinobacteria have been hardly used as probiotics in aquaculture. However, this group of bacteria promises to supply the most potential probiotic strains in the future.

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Bacterial abundance, diversity and sediment function were investigated in organically perturbed sediments under Tasmanian salmon (Salmo salar) farms and adjacent reference sites. Bacterial numbers increased as farming and organic loading progressed through the farm stocking cycle and declined during the fallow period, although not to prestocking levels. Bacterial numbers ranged between approximately 2 x 10(8) and 3 x 10(9) cells per gram of sediment and were higher at cage sites than reference sites. Microelectrode and respiration data also demonstrated a clear effect of organic loading on sediments. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) showed that bacterial communities shifted both in response to farm loading and its cessation. A seasonal effect on microbial communities was also evident. Although bacterial communities did shift again during the fallowing period, this shift was not necessarily a return to preloading communities. The complexity of community shifts may be affected by the vast functional redundancy of bacterial groups. All bacterial communities, including those at reference sites, were highly dynamic. Respiration studies of amended sediments indicated that fish farm sediments were at least as resilient and diverse as reference site communities. The results of this study indicate that the functional redundancy of highly complex bacterial communities contributes to their robustness. The relationship between diversity and stability in bacterial communities remains unclear and requires further investigation before an understanding of bacterial response to perturbation is possible.

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The failure of denitrification to remove nitrogen build-up from aquatic systems is often attributed to sediment chemical conditions inhibiting nitrification and therefore the supply of suitable substrates to be denitrified. We investigated the effects of organic fish farm pollution on nitrogencycle dynamics and betaproteobacterial ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (β-AOB) community structure to elucidate the potential role of the nitrifier community on nitrogen biogeochemistry in marine sediments. Porewater nitrogen concentrations, denitrification rates, β-AOB 16S rDNA gene quantification, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) community fingerprints and infaunal counts were determined in samples collected from beneath fish cages and at adjacent, non-impacted control sites. The study was conducted over 2 full, 1 yr production cycles. Although nitrogen cycling was significantly altered beneath cages, changes appeared to result from a reduction in the proportion of ammonia nitrified rather than from inhibition of nitrification per se. DGGE revealed β-AOB communities shifted rapidly and remained diverse at both cage and reference sites. Quantitative PCR (qPCR) showed β-AOB numbers did not decline in absolute terms but did decline as a proportion of the total bacterial community at cage sites and at the end of the stocking periods. Sediment infaunal community analysis showed significant effects of organic loading and indicated more bioirrigation at impacted sites. Despite the induction of conditions thought to be detrimental to nitrification and to β-AOB (low oxygen, reduced sediments, low pH, and high sulphide concentrations), these communities remained diverse and apparently viable, perhaps a result of heavy sediment bioirrigation. However, despite the increase in denitrification, nitrogen left the sediment predominantly as ammonia, thus producing potential point sources of eutrophication.

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