In Table 3 of this Data Descriptor the units of Mean_N 2 O and Mean_CH 4 are incorrectly stated as "Nanomolar (μM)". This should instead read "Nanomolar (nM)".
Microorganisms are the most abundant lifeform on Earth, mediating global fluxes of matter and energy. Over the past decade, high-throughput molecular techniques generating multiomic sequence information (DNA, mRNA, and protein) have transformed our perception of this microcosmos, conceptually linking microorganisms at the individual, population, and community levels to a wide range of ecosystem functions and services. Here, we develop a biogeochemical model that describes metabolic coupling along the redox gradient in Saanich Inlet-a seasonally anoxic fjord with biogeochemistry analogous to oxygen minimum zones (OMZs). The model reproduces measured biogeochemical process rates as well as DNA, mRNA, and protein concentration profiles across the redox gradient. Simulations make predictions about the role of ubiquitous OMZ microorganisms in mediating carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur cycling. For example, nitrite "leakage" during incomplete sulfide-driven denitrification by SUP05 Gammaproteobacteria is predicted to support inorganic carbon fixation and intense nitrogen loss via anaerobic ammonium oxidation. This coupling creates a metabolic niche for nitrous oxide reduction that completes denitrification by currently unidentified community members. These results quantitatively improve previous conceptual models describing microbial metabolic networks in OMZs. Beyond OMZ-specific predictions, model results indicate that geochemical fluxes are robust indicators of microbial community structure and reciprocally, that gene abundances and geochemical conditions largely determine gene expression patterns. The integration of real observational data, including geochemical profiles and process rate measurements as well as metagenomic, metatranscriptomic and metaproteomic sequence data, into a biogeochemical model, as shown here, enables holistic insight into the microbial metabolic network driving nutrient and energy flow at ecosystem scales.M icrobial communities catalyze Earth's biogeochemical cycles through metabolic pathways that couple fluxes of matter and energy to biological growth (1). These pathways are encoded in evolving genes that, over time, spread across microbial lineages and today shape the conditions for life on Earth. High-throughput sequencing and mass-spectrometry platforms are generating multiomic sequence information (DNA, mRNA, and protein) that is transforming our perception of this microcosmos, but the vast majority of environmental sequencing studies lack a mechanistic link to geochemical processes. At the same time, mathematical models are increasingly used to describe local-and global-scale biogeochemical processes or predict future changes in global elemental cycling and climate (2, 3). Although these models typically incorporate the catalytic properties of cells, they fail to integrate the information flow from DNA to mRNA, proteins, and process rates as described by the central dogma of molecular biology (4). Hence, a mechanistic framework integrating multiomic data with geochemical information has...
We collected Arctic Ocean water column samples for methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) analysis on three separate cruises in the summer and fall of 2015, covering a ∼10,000 km transect from the Bering Sea to Baffin Bay. This provided a three‐dimensional view of CH4 and N2O distributions across contrasting hydrographic environments, from the oligotrophic waters of the deep Canada Basin and Baffin Bay, to the productive shelves of the Bering and Chukchi Seas. Percent saturation relative to atmospheric equilibrium ranged from 30 to 800% for CH4 and 75 to 145% for N2O, with the highest concentrations of both gases occurring in the northern Chukchi Sea. Nitrogen cycling in the shelf sediments of the Bering and Chukchi Seas likely constituted the major source of N2O to the water column, and the resulting high N2O concentrations were transported across the Arctic Ocean in eastward‐flowing water masses. Methane concentrations were more spatially heterogeneous, reflecting a variety of localized inputs, including likely sources from sedimentary methanogenesis and sea ice processes. Unlike N2O, CH4 was rapidly consumed through microbial oxidation in the water column, as shown by the 13C enrichment of CH4 with decreasing concentrations. For both CH4 and N2O, sea‐air fluxes were close to neutral, indicating that our sampling region was neither a major source nor sink of these gases. Our results provide insight into the factors controlling the distribution of CH4 and N2O in the North American Arctic Ocean, and an important baseline data set against which future changes can be assessed.
Large-scale climatic forcing is impacting oceanic biogeochemical cycles and is expected to influence the watercolumn distribution of trace gases, including methane and nitrous oxide. Our ability as a scientific community to evaluate changes in the water-column inventories of methane and nitrous oxide depends largely on our capacity to obtain robust and accurate concentration measurements that can be validated across different laboratory groups. This study represents the first formal international intercomparison of oceanic methane and nitrous oxide measurements whereby participating laboratories received batches of seawater samples from the subtropical Pacific Ocean and the Baltic Sea. Additionally, compressed gas standards from the same calibration scale were distributed to the majority of participating laboratories to improve the analytical accuracy of the gas measurements. The computations used by each laboratory toPublished by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 5892 S. T. Wilson et al.: An intercomparison of oceanic methane and nitrous oxide measurements derive the dissolved gas concentrations were also evaluated for inconsistencies (e.g., pressure and temperature corrections, solubility constants). The results from the intercomparison and intercalibration provided invaluable insights into methane and nitrous oxide measurements. It was observed that analyses of seawater samples with the lowest concentrations of methane and nitrous oxide had the lowest precisions. In comparison, while the analytical precision for samples with the highest concentrations of trace gases was better, the variability between the different laboratories was higher: 36 % for methane and 27 % for nitrous oxide. In addition, the comparison of different batches of seawater samples with methane and nitrous oxide concentrations that ranged over an order of magnitude revealed the ramifications of different calibration procedures for each trace gas. Finally, this study builds upon the intercomparison results to develop recommendations for improving oceanic methane and nitrous oxide measurements, with the aim of precluding future analytical discrepancies between laboratories.
Extensive and expanding oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) exist at variable depths in coastal and open ocean waters. As oxygen levels decline, nutrients and energy are increasingly diverted away from higher trophic levels into microbial community metabolism, resulting in fixed nitrogen loss and production of climate active trace gases including nitrous oxide and methane. While ocean deoxygenation has been reported on a global scale, our understanding of OMZ biology and geochemistry is limited by a lack of time-resolved data sets. Here, we present a historical dataset of oxygen concentrations spanning fifty years and nine years of monthly geochemical time series observations in Saanich Inlet, a seasonally anoxic fjord on the coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada that undergoes recurring changes in water column oxygenation status. This compendium provides a unique geochemical framework for evaluating long-term trends in biogeochemical cycling in OMZ waters.
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