Surfactant Associated Bacteria in the Sea Surface Microlayer: Case Studies in the Straits of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico

Relative abundance of Bacillus spp., surfactant-associated bacterium present in a natural sea slick observed by satellite SAR imagery over the Gulf of Mexico

“…This fluorescence is sequence-independent, meaning that primer-dimers, inadequate primer concentration, and secondary metabolites could cause the dye to bind to double-stranded DNA and fluoresce (Ponchel et al, 2003). The master mix, modified from Hamilton et al (2015a and2015b), contained 12.5 μL SYBR-Green 1, 8.5 μL PCR water, 1 μL of 10 μM Bac265F, and 1 μL of 10 μM Bac525R. Bac265F and Bac525R are primers designed to amplify 16 s rRNA gene sequences specific to the genus Bacillus (Xiao et al, 2011).…”

“…All samples were run in duplicate. The qPCR protocol, which has been modified from Hamilton et al (2015a and2015b), had an initial denaturing step of 95°C for 15 min, followed by 25 cycles of 94°C for 30 s, 62°C for 30 s, and 72°C for 2 min, followed by an extension at 72°C for 10 min followed by a melt curve. Each sampling day was analyzed in a separate qPCR run (Table S1).…”

“…The activity of surfactant-associated bacteria is not detected by satellite sensors (ocean color or SAR images), but the accumulation of surfactants can be inferred from SAR images that show the presence of surface slicks (Kurata et al, 2016;Hamilton et al, 2015a;Soloviev and Lukas, 2014). SAR satellites can image the sea surface in both daytime and nighttime conditions, because the SAR technology is based on microwaves that can penetrate cloud cover and fog.…”

“…Franklin et al (2005), however, did their sampling from a boat in calm conditions. Hamilton et al (2015aHamilton et al ( , 2015b and Kurata et al (2016) advanced the use of this technique by extending the range of sea state conditions. This paper, while similar to the previous work of Hamilton et al (2015aHamilton et al ( , 2015b and Kurata et al (2016), differs by sampling a new location (in the Gulf of Mexico) and thus expanding the geographic relevance of results from these types of analyses.…”

“…Hamilton et al (2015aHamilton et al ( , 2015b and Kurata et al (2016) advanced the use of this technique by extending the range of sea state conditions. This paper, while similar to the previous work of Hamilton et al (2015aHamilton et al ( , 2015b and Kurata et al (2016), differs by sampling a new location (in the Gulf of Mexico) and thus expanding the geographic relevance of results from these types of analyses. The number of samples collected was also increased to improve statistical power, and the quantitative PCR (qPCR) method used to evaluate abundance of the targeted organisms was modified by using the Pfaffl (2001) method (see Eq.…”