The Action of some Denitrifying Bacteria in Tropical and Temperate Seas, and the Bacterial Precipitation of Calcium Carbonate in the Sea

Abstract

It is generally conceded that the plankton of tropical and sub-tropical seas is far less in quantity than that found in colder waters.The zoö-plankton depends ultimately for its food on the phyto-plankton; hence any factor limiting the growth of the phyto-plankton, which is capable of functioning in tropical and not in temperate or Arctic waters, might offer an explanation of this phenomenon. It has been shown by various investigators that this factor is not temperature, light, or salinity, and it has been suggested that the explanation may lie in the relative deficiency in tropical seas of the nitrates or nitrogenous compounds which are so essential for all plant life. A matter of common observation in support of this view is the remarkable scarcity of algal growth in the shallow waters of tropical shores as compared with that in similar situations in temperate regions, and the fact that in the tropics, wherever sewage or other nitrogenous waste is poured into the sea, a free growth of algæ is found.

Geochemical evidence of microbial activity within ooids

“…Along with previous studies, which establish the predominance of denitrification genes over sulphate reduction genes, and identify denitrifiers within the orders Pseudomonadales, Rhizobiales , Rhodobacterales , Oceanospirillales , Actinomycetales and Burkholderiales , as well as fungi with capabilities for denitrification, for example Ascomycota (Diaz et al ., ), these findings suggest that heterotrophic denitrification may play a role influencing CaCO 3 in ooids from active shoals. Not only does Pseudomonas have the capability to induce CaCO 3 precipitation via the reduction of nitrates (Knorre & Krumbein, ; Baskar et al ., ), but it has also been implicated in the generation of the mud flats in the Bahamas and in the Florida Keys (Drew, , ). Although typically an anaerobic process, and given the well‐oxygenated water conditions of active ooid shoals, it would not be surprising to envision denitrification and other anaerobic respiratory processes, for example sulphate reduction and anaerobic sulphide oxidation, to occur in a variety of micro‐niches where oxygen is rather limited, including: (i) fluid inclusions entrapped within the concentric aragonite layers; (ii) within EPS biofilms in the outer cortex of the ooids, where the production of EPS lead to chemical and redox gradients facilitating nutrient and organic matter cycling (Dalton et al ., ); (iii) inside aggregates of particle‐attached bacteria known to induce anoxic micro‐zones (Ploug et al ., ); and (iv) inside inner cortices or microboring areas.…”

Functional gene diversity of oolitic sands from Great Bahama Bank

“…This finding supports previous studies documenting the presence of denitrifying communities in oolitic environments (Diaz et al ., ). In addition, denitrifying communities (e.g., Pseudomonas , etc) have been implicated in the chalky mud flat precipitation in the Bahamas (Drew, , ). N 2 fixation genes , which were the second most abundant nitrogen‐related gene family, followed by ammonification, identified lineages associated with Euryarchaeota, Proteobacteria , and Cyanobacteria, suggesting these communities may have an important role as contributors to nitrogen in these nitrate‐poor oligotrophic Bahamian waters (Karl et al ., ).…”

Bacterial Carbonatogenesis and Applications to Preservation and Restoration of Historic Property

“…fungal mediation (Callot et aI., 1985;Verrecchia and Loisy, 1997); v. heterotrophic bacterial mediation. As a matter of fact, bacterial contribution to limestone formation has been suspected for years (Drew 191Oa;1910b;Berkeley, 1919;Kellerman, 1915;Lipmann, 1924;Molish, 1924;Nadson, 1928;Krumbein, 1968Krumbein, , 1974Krumbein, , 1978 but remained controversial until recent experiments in microbiogeological laboratories investigated the metabolic pathways involved, the modes and conditions of solid particles formation, and evaluated bacterial carbonate productivity (Krumbein, 1979a(Krumbein, , 1979bRiege et aI., 1991;Castanier, 1987;Le Metayer-Levrel, 1996;Castanier et aI., 1997Castanier et aI., , 1998). …”