Alexandrium catenella (Whedon et Kofoid) Balech was isolated from Thau lagoon (northern Mediterranean) and its growth and uptake characteristics measured for nitrate, ammonium, and urea. Although affinity constants did not indicate a preference for ammonium over nitrate, there was a strong inhibition of nitrate uptake by ammonium when both nitrogen (N) sources were present. Nitrogen budgets during growth in cultures revealed major imbalances between decreases in dissolved N and increases in particulate N, indicating excretion of dissolved organic N during the early part of the growth phase and uptake during the later part. A quasi‐unialgal bloom in November 2001 (4×106 cells·L−1) allowed measurements of uptake of nitrate, nitrite, ammonium, and urea; net and gross growth rate of A. catenella; and grazing rates on this organism. The affinity constants indicate that it is not a strong competitor for the N nutrients tested when these are in low concentrations (<10 μgat N·L−1), compared with other members of the phytoplankton community. Indirect evidence from cultures indicate that dissolved organic N compounds could be important in triggering those blooms. Finally, the strongly unbalanced growth observed in the field indicates that A. catenella exhibits a storage rather than a growth response to a nutrient pulse and is adapted to low frequency events such as the passage of frontal disturbances. The disappearance of A. catenella was due to grazing that balanced growth at the peak of the bloom.
We used a partial 16S rRNA sequencing approach to compare the structure and composition of the bacterial communities in three large, deep subalpine lakes in France with those of communities in six shallow tropical reservoirs in Burkina Faso. Despite the very different characteristics of these ecosystems, we found that their bacterial communities share the same composition in regard to the relative proportions of the different phyla, suggesting that freshwater environmental conditions lead to convergence in this composition. In the same way, we found no significant difference in the richness and diversity of the bacterial communities in France and Burkina Faso. We defined core and satellite operational taxonomic units (OTUs) (sequences sharing at least 98% identity) on the basis of their abundance and their geographical distribution. The core OTUs were found either ubiquitously or only in temperate or tropical and subtropical areas, and they contained more than 70% of all the sequences retrieved in this study. In contrast, satellite OTUs were characterized by having a more restricted geographical distribution and by lower abundance. Finally, the bacterial community composition of these freshwater ecosystems in France and Burkina Faso was markedly different, showing that the history of these ecosystems and regional environmental parameters have a greater impact on the relative abundances of the different OTUs in each bacterial community than the local environmental conditions.
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