CitationCharacterization of marine isoprene-degrading communities. 2009, 11 (12) In contrast to specialist methane-oxidising bacteria, cultivated isoprene degraders were nutritionally versatile, and nearly all of them were able to use n-alkanes as a source of carbon and energy. We therefore tested and showed that the ubiquitous marine hydrocarbon-degrader, Alcanivorax borkumensis, could also degrade isoprene. A mixture of the isolates consumed isoprene emitted from algal cultures, confirming that isoprene can be metabolized at low, environmentally-relevant concentrations, and suggesting that, in the absence of spilled petroleum hydrocarbons, algal production of isoprene could maintain viable populations of hydrocarbon-degrading microbes. This discovery of a missing marine sink for isoprene is the first step in obtaining more robust predictions of its flux, and suggests that algal-derived isoprene provides an additional source of carbon for diverse microbes in the oceans.Acuña Alvarez et al.
Coastal and estuarine ecosystems are highly susceptible to crude oil pollution. Therefore, in order to examine the resilience of benthic phototrophs that are pivotal to coastal ecosystem functioning, we simulated an oil spill in tidal mesocosms consisting of intact sediment cores from a mudflat at the mouth of the Colne Estuary, UK. At day 21, fluorescence imaging revealed a bloom of cyanobacteria on the surface of oiled sediment cores, and the upper 1.5 cm thick sediment had 7.2 times more cyanobacterial and 1.7 times more diatom rRNA sequences when treated with oil. Photosystem II operating efficiency (Fq'/Fm') was significantly reduced in oiled sediments at day 7, implying that the initial diatom-dominated community was negatively affected by oil, but this was no longer apparent by day 21. Oil addition significantly reduced numbers of the key deposit feeders, and the decreased grazing pressure is likely to be a major factor in the increased abundance of both diatoms and cyanobacteria. By day 5 concentrations of dissolved inorganic nitrogen were significantly lower in oiled mesocosms, likely resulting in the observed increase in nifH-containing, and therefore potentially dinitrogen-fixing, cyanobacteria. Thus, indirect effects of oil, rather than direct inhibition, are primarily responsible for altering the microphytobenthos.
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