Prokaryotic respiration and production in the meso- and bathypelagic realm of the eastern and western North Atlantic basin

Reinthaler, Thomas; Aken, Hendrik van; Veth, C.; Arı́stegui, Javier; Robinson, Carol; Williams, Peter; Lebaron, Philippe; Herndl, Gerhard J.

doi:10.4319/lo.2006.51.3.1262

Cited by 157 publications

(208 citation statements)

References 56 publications

(72 reference statements)

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“…Recently, Aristegui et al (2009) reviewed deepwater prokaryotic abundance and activity and viral abundance and concluded that the variability in these parameters is as high in the deep ocean as in surface waters despite their decrease in average abundance by orders of magnitude over this depth range. In our study, heterotrophic prokaryotic activity decreased by three orders of magnitude from the epi-to the abyssopelagic layer and was generally similar to that reported for the deep waters of the southern region of the North Atlantic (Reinthaler et al, 2006). As mentioned above, heterotrophic prokaryotic activity was strongly related to viral abundance.…”

Section: Viral and Heterotrophic Prokaryotic Productionsupporting

confidence: 66%

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Links between viral and prokaryotic communities throughout the water column in the (sub)tropical Atlantic Ocean

et al. 2010

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Viral and prokaryotic abundance, production and diversity were determined throughout the water column of the subtropical Atlantic Ocean to assess potential variations in the relation between viruses and prokaryotes. Prokaryotic abundance and heterotrophic activity decreased by one and three orders of magnitude, respectively, from the epi-to the abyssopelagic layer. Although the lytic viral production (VP) decreased with depth, lysogenic VP was variable throughout the water column and did not show any trend with depth. The bacterial, archaeal and viral community composition were depth-stratified as determined by the automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis, terminalrestriction fragment length polymorphism and randomly amplified polymorphic DNA-PCR, respectively. Generally, the number of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) did not reveal consistent trends throughout the water column. Viral and prokaryotic abundance were strongly related to heterotrophic prokaryotic production, suggesting similar linkage strength between the viral and prokaryotic communities from the lower epi-to the abyssopelagic layer in the Atlantic Ocean. Strikingly, the prokaryotic and viral parameters exhibited a similar variability throughout the water column down to the abyssopelagic layers, suggesting that the dark ocean is as dynamic a system as is the lower epipelagic layer. It also indicates that viruses are apparently having a similar role for prokaryotic mortality in the dark oceanic realm as in surface waters. The more than twofold increase in bacterial OTUs from 2750 m depth to 45000 m depth and the concurrent decrease in viral OTUs, however, suggests that viruses might exhibit a wider host range in deep waters than in surface waters.

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Section: Viral and Heterotrophic Prokaryotic Productionsupporting

confidence: 66%

“…Viruses and prokaryotes in the deep (sub)tropical Atlantic D De Corte et al been reported previously (Allen and Bartlett, 2002;DeLong et al, 2006;Reinthaler et al, 2006). Lauro and Bartlett, 2008 showed that bathypelagic prokaryotes have generally a high copy number of rRNA operons per genome and a larger intergenic region.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Links between viral and prokaryotic communities throughout the water column in the (sub)tropical Atlantic Ocean

et al. 2010

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“…Published estimates of POC flux attenuation with depth are, however, up to 2 orders of magnitude lower than corresponding estimates of heterotrophic metabolism [4][5][6][7] . This discrepancy indicates that either estimates of POC flux and/or community metabolism are unreliable, or that additional, unaccounted for, sources of organic carbon to the twilight zone exist 8 .…”

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confidence: 77%

Reconciliation of the carbon budget in the ocean’s twilight zone

Giering

Sanders

Lampitt

et al. 2014

Nature

313

347

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The global carbon cycle is affected by biological processes in the oceans, which export carbon from surface waters in form of organic matter and store it at depth; a process called the 'biological carbon pump'. Most of the exported organic carbon is processed by the water column biota, which ultimately converts it into CO2 via respiration (remineralization). Variations in the resulting decrease in organic flux with depth 9 can, according to models, lead to changes in atmospheric CO 2 of up to 200 ppm 3 , indicating a strong coupling between biological activity in the ocean interior and oceanic storage of CO 2 .A key constraint in the analysis of carbon fluxes in the twilight zone is that, at steady state, the attenuation of particulate organic carbon (POC) flux with depth should be balanced by community metabolism. Published estimates of POC flux attenuation with depth are, however, up to 2 orders of magnitude lower than corresponding estimates of heterotrophic metabolism [4][5][6][7] . This discrepancy indicates that either estimates of POC flux and/or community metabolism are unreliable, or that additional, unaccounted for, sources of organic carbon to the twilight zone exist 8 .We compiled a comprehensive carbon budget of the twilight zone based on an based on the ratio between DOC concentrations and apparent oxygen utilization 15 , and on DOC gradients coupled to turbulent diffusivity measured from previous work at the study site 16 (Methods; Extended Data Fig. 2). DOC was estimated to supply 17% of total export in agreement with previous estimates of 9-20% across the North Atlantic basin 17 . Organic matter input via lateral advection was assumed to be negligible based on analyses of back-trajectories (derived from satellite-derived near-surface velocities over 3 months) of the water masses arriving at the PAP site during the study period, which suggested that the water had not passed over the continental slope (Extended Data Fig. 1b). The final source of DOC, excretion at depth by active flux, was estimated using net samples of zooplankton biomass and allometric equations 6,18 , giving a supply of 3 mg C m -2 d -1 . Defecation and mortality at depth present further sources of organic carbon to the twilight zone, but these were excluded from the budget due to large uncertainties associated with their estimation. Finally, chemolithoautotrophy has been suggested to be a significant source of organic matter in the deep ocean 19 , but without strong evidence that this poorly understood process could provide a major contribution at our study site, we chose to exclude it from our carbon budget.The remineralization of organic carbon by zooplankton and prokaryotes was estimated from zooplankton biomass and prokaryotic activity. It is crucial to note that in a steady state system, such as we assume this to be, organic carbon is lost from the system only by export or by remineralization. We focus entirely on community respiration as a measure of remineralization, a fundamental advance over previous methods to derive...

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“…For example, partitioning between the euphotic and aphotic regions has been amply documented for bacterioplankton processes (Carlson et al, 2004;Reinthaler et al, 2006) and for many major microbial plankton clades (Gordon and Giovannoni, 1996;Giovannoni et al, 1996;Wright et al, 1997;DeLong et al, 2006). Evolutionary adaptive radiation into ecotypes that are specialized to specific depth horizons has also been previously described as niche partitioning for SAR11 and Prochlorococcus (Field et al, 1997;Moore et al, 1998).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal dynamics of SAR11 populations in the euphotic and mesopelagic zones of the northwestern Sargasso Sea

et al. 2008

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Bacterioplankton belonging to the SAR11 clade of a-proteobacteria were counted by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) over eight depths in the surface 300 m at the Bermuda Atlantic Timeseries Study (BATS) site from 2003 to 2005. SAR11 are dominant heterotrophs in oligotrophic systems; thus, resolving their temporal dynamics can provide important insights to the cycling of organic and inorganic nutrients. This quantitative time-series data revealed distinct annual distribution patterns of SAR11 abundance in the euphotic (0-120) and upper mesopelagic (160-300 m) zones that were reproducibly correlated with seasonal mixing and stratification of the water column. Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) data generated from a decade of samples collected at BATS were combined with the FISH data to model the annual dynamics of SAR11 subclade populations. 16S rRNA gene clone libraries were constructed to verify the correlation of the T-RFLP data with SAR11 clade structure. Clear vertical and temporal transitions were observed in the dominance of three SAR11 ecotypes. The mechanisms that lead to shifts between the different SAR11 populations are not well understood, but are probably a consequence of finely tuned physiological adaptations that partition the populations along physical and chemical gradients in the ecosystem. The correlation between evolutionary descent and temporal/spatial patterns we describe, confirmed that a minimum of three SAR11 ecotypes occupy the Sargasso Sea surface layer, and revealed new details of their population dynamics.

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Prokaryotic respiration and production in the meso- and bathypelagic realm of the eastern and western North Atlantic basin

Cited by 157 publications

References 56 publications

Links between viral and prokaryotic communities throughout the water column in the (sub)tropical Atlantic Ocean

Links between viral and prokaryotic communities throughout the water column in the (sub)tropical Atlantic Ocean

Reconciliation of the carbon budget in the ocean’s twilight zone

Seasonal dynamics of SAR11 populations in the euphotic and mesopelagic zones of the northwestern Sargasso Sea

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