scholarly journals Richness and Diversity of Bacterioplankton Species along an Estuarine Gradient in Moreton Bay, Australia

2004 ◽  
Vol 70 (6) ◽  
pp. 3425-3433 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Hewson ◽  
Jed A. Fuhrman

ABSTRACT Bacterioplankton community diversity was investigated in the subtropical Brisbane River-Moreton Bay estuary, Australia (27�25′S, 153�5′E). Bacterial communities were studied using automated rRNA intergenic spacer analysis (ARISA), which amplifies 16S-23S ribosomal DNA internally transcribed spacer regions from mixed-community DNA and detects the separated products on a fragment analyzer. Samples were collected from eight sites throughout the estuary and east to the East Australian Current (Coral Sea). Bacterioplankton communities had the highest operational taxonomic unit (OTU) richness, as measured by ARISA at eastern bay stations (S [total richness] = 84 to 85 OTU) and the lowest richness in the Coral Sea (S = 39 to 59 OTU). Richness correlated positively with bacterial abundance; however, there were no strong correlations between diversity and salinity, NO3 − and PO4 3− concentrations, or chlorophyll a concentration. Bacterioplankton communities at the riverine stations were different from communities in the bay or Coral Sea. The main differences in OTU richness between stations were in taxa that each represented 0.1% (the detection limit) to 0.5% of the total amplified DNA, i.e., the “tail” of the distribution. We found that some bacterioplankton taxa are specific to distinct environments while others have a ubiquitous distribution from river to sea. Bacterioplankton richness and diversity patterns in the estuary are potentially a consequence of greater niche availability, mixing of local and adjacent environment communities, or intermediate disturbance. Furthermore, these results contrast with previous reports of spatially homogeneous bacterioplankton communities in other coastal waters.

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Στυλιανός Φοδελιανάκης

Nutrient enrichment is a common source of disturbance for marineecosystems. A prerequisite for the prediction of the effects of nutrient enrichment atthe ecosystem level is the understanding of the ecological mechanisms governingbacterioplankton communities, due to their high affinity with nutrients. The aim ofthis thesis was to examine changes in the composition and structure ofbacterioplankton communities of the water column and coastal sediment undernutrient enrichment. Three studies were conducted for that purpose: two in closedexperimental conditions and one examining changes in situ. In the first two studies,changes in the water column bacterioplankton communities were examined after Paddition and in nutrient enriched habitats, respectively. In the third study, changes inthe communities of coastal sediment were examined with and without the additionof organic matter and aeration of the water column. The main conclusions from theresults of this thesis were:a) Bacterioplankton communities of the Eastern Mediterranean show a high degreeof resistance to short-term P addition, although their biomass and production islimited by P.b) Five abundant taxonomic groups showed a similar pattern of change across threedifferent nutrient enriched habitats. These groups could be potentially used asindicators for monitoring nutrient enrichment at the water column.c) After incubation under presence or absence of organic enrichment, sedimentbacterial communities originating from different habitats clustered based on theincubation conditions rather than on the area of origin. That occurred faster for twoout of the three areas, where the amount of organic matter in the sediment wasinitially higher and bacterial community diversity was lower. These results indirectlysupport the theory of Baas-Becking that "everything is everywhere but theenvironment selects" and the positive correlation between diversity and communitystability.


2001 ◽  
Vol 67 (10) ◽  
pp. 4638-4647 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria J. Laamanen ◽  
Muriel F. Gugger ◽  
Jaana M. Lehtimäki ◽  
Kaisa Haukka ◽  
Kaarina Sivonen

ABSTRACT Cyanobacteria of the genus Nodularia form toxic blooms in brackish waters worldwide. In addition,Nodularia spp. are found in benthic, periphytic, and soil habitats. The majority of the planktic isolates produce a pentapeptide hepatotoxin nodularin. We examined the morphologic, toxicologic, and molecular characters of 18 nodularin-producing and nontoxic Nodularia strains to find appropriate markers for distinguishing the toxic strains from the nontoxic ones in field samples. After classical taxonomy, the examined strains were identified as Nodularia sp., Nodularia spumigena,N. baltica, N. harveyana, and N. sphaerocarpa. Morphologic characters were ambiguous in terms of distinguishing between the toxic and the nontoxic strains. DNA sequences from the short 16S-23S rRNA internally transcribed spacer (ITS1-S) and from the phycocyanin operon intergenic spacer and its flanking regions (PC-IGS) were different for the toxic and the nontoxic strains. Phylogenetic analysis of the ITS1-S and PC-IGS sequences from strains identified as N. spumigena, and N. baltica, and N. litorea indicated that the division of the planktic Nodularia into the three species is not supported by the ITS1-S and PC-IGS sequences. However, the ITS1-S and PC-IGS sequences supported the separation of strains designated N. harveyana and N. sphaerocarpa from one another and the planktic strains.HaeIII digestion of PCR amplified PC-IGS regions of all examined 186 Nodularia filaments collected from the Baltic Sea produced a digestion pattern similar to that found in toxic isolates. Our results suggest that only one plankticNodularia species is present in the Baltic Sea plankton and that it is nodularin producing.


Author(s):  
Christopher P. Mancuso ◽  
Hyunseok Lee ◽  
Clare I. Abreu ◽  
Jeff Gore ◽  
Ahmad S. Khalil

SummaryEnvironmental disturbances have long been theorized to play a significant role in shaping the diversity and composition of ecosystems1,2. However, fundamental limitations in our ability to specify the characteristics of a disturbance in the field and laboratory have produced an inconsistent picture of diversity-disturbance relationships (DDRs) that shape the structure of ecosystems3. Here, using a recently developed continuous culture system with tunable environmental control4, we decomposed a dilution disturbance into intensity and fluctuation components5,6, and tested their effects on the diversity of a soil-derived bacterial community across hundreds of replicate cultures. We observed an unexpected U-shaped relationship between community diversity and disturbance intensity in the absence of fluctuations, an observation counter to classical intuition. Adding fluctuations erased the U-shape and increased community diversity across all disturbance intensities. All of these results are well-captured by a Monod consumer resource model, which further reveals how U-shaped DDRs emerge based on a novel “niche flip” mechanism in which competitive outcomes flip and coexistence regimes subsequently collapse at intermediate disturbance levels. Broadly, our results demonstrate how distinct features of an environmental disturbance can interact in complex ways to govern ecosystem assembly and produce all the major classes of DDRs, without invoking other organizational principles. With these findings, we construct a unifying framework that reconciles the disparate DDRs observed in nature, and propose strategies for predictively reshaping the compositional complexity of microbiomes and other ecosystems.


Author(s):  
Shota Shibasaki ◽  
Mauro Mobilia ◽  
Sara Mitri

AbstractMicroorganisms often live in environments that fluctuate between mild and harsh conditions. Although such fluctuations are bound to cause local extinctions and affect species diversity, it is unknown how diversity changes at different fluctuation rates and how this relates to changes in species interactions. Here, we use a mathematical model describing the dynamics of resources, toxins, and microbial species in a chemostat where resource supplies switch. Over most of the explored parameter space, species competed, but the strength of competition peaked at either low, high, or intermediate switching rates depending on the species’ sensitivity to toxins. Importantly, however, the strength of competition in species pairs was a good predictor for how community diversity changed over the switching rate. In sum, predicting the effect of environmental switching on competition and community diversity is difficult, as species’ properties matter. This may explain contradicting results of earlier studies on the intermediate disturbance hypothesis.


Genes ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 556 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingjing Liu ◽  
Jing Wu ◽  
Jiawei Lin ◽  
Jian Zhao ◽  
Tianyi Xu ◽  
...  

To systematically evaluate the ecological changes of an active offshore petroleum production system, the variation of microbial communities at several sites (virgin field, wellhead, storage tank) of an oil production facility in east China was investigated by sequencing the V3 to V4 regions of 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) of microorganisms. In general, a decrease of microbial community richness and diversity in petroleum mining was observed, as measured by operational taxonomic unit (OTU) numbers, α (Chao1 and Shannon indices), and β (principal coordinate analysis) diversity. Microbial community structure was strongly affected by environmental factors at the phylum and genus levels. At the phylum level, virgin field and wellhead were dominated by Proteobacteria, while the storage tank had higher presence of Firmicutes (29.3–66.9%). Specifically, the wellhead displayed a lower presentence of Proteobacteria (48.6–53.4.0%) and a higher presence of Firmicutes (24.4–29.6%) than the virgin field. At the genus level, the predominant genera were Ochrobactrum and Acinetobacter in the virgin field, Lactococcus and Pseudomonas in the wellhead, and Prauseria and Bacillus in the storage tank. Our study revealed that the microbial community structure was strongly affected by the surrounding environmental factors, such as temperature, oxygen content, salinity, and pH, which could be altered because of the oil production. It was observed that the various microbiomes produced surfactants, transforming the biohazard and degrading hydro-carbon. Altering the microbiome growth condition by appropriate human intervention and taking advantage of natural microbial resources can further enhance oil recovery technology.


2008 ◽  
Vol 74 (6) ◽  
pp. 1856-1868 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sascha F. Percent ◽  
Marc E. Frischer ◽  
Paul A. Vescio ◽  
Ellen B. Duffy ◽  
Vincenzo Milano ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Although it is recognized that acidification of freshwater systems results in decreased overall species richness of plants and animals, little is known about the response of aquatic microbial communities to acidification. In this study we examined bacterioplankton community diversity and structure in 18 lakes located in the Adirondack Park (in the state of New York in the United States) that were affected to various degrees by acidic deposition and assessed correlations with 31 physical and chemical parameters. The pH of these lakes ranged from 4.9 to 7.8. These studies were conducted as a component of the Adirondack Effects Assessment Program supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Thirty-one independent 16S rRNA gene libraries consisting of 2,135 clones were constructed from epilimnion and hypolimnion water samples. Bacterioplankton community composition was determined by sequencing and amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis of the clone libraries. Nineteen bacterial classes representing 95 subclasses were observed, but clone libraries were dominated by representatives of the Actinobacteria and Betaproteobacteria classes. Although the diversity and richness of bacterioplankton communities were positively correlated with pH, the overall community composition assessed by principal component analysis was not. The strongest correlations were observed between bacterioplankton communities and lake depth, hydraulic retention time, dissolved inorganic carbon, and nonlabile monomeric aluminum concentrations. While there was not an overall correlation between bacterioplankton community structure and pH, several bacterial classes, including the Alphaproteobacteria, were directly correlated with acidity. These results indicate that unlike more identifiable correlations between acidity and species richness for higher trophic levels, controls on bacterioplankton community structure are likely more complex, involving both direct and indirect processes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. S829-S830
Author(s):  
Jonathan Motyka ◽  
Hao-Tsai Cheng ◽  
Cheng-Yu Lin ◽  
Micah Keidan ◽  
Vincent B Young ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) has high incidence in the United States, but less so in East Asian countries such as Taiwan. The reason for this is not understood, but microbial studies could reveal important epidemiologic insights. We hypothesized that the circulating strains of C. difficile and the gut microbiota differ between the United States and Taiwan. Methods Patients with diarrhea ± CDI from the University of Michigan and Chang Gung Memorial Hospital were included. CDI was defined by + enzyme immunoassay for the glutamate dehydrogenase gene and toxins A/B, with reflex to tcdB gene PCR for discordants. C. difficile was isolated by anaerobic culture and characterized by PCR ribotype. The fecal microbiota was assessed by sequence analysis of 16S rRNA-encoding gene amplicons targeting the V4 region. Amplicon sequences were processed using the mothur bioinformatics pipeline, with an operational taxonomic unit (OTU) defined by < = 3% sequence homology. Analysis was performed via logistic regression, principal coordinates (PCoA), and ANOVA. Results Community diversity by Shannon index of CDI- patients was lower (Figure 1); this difference was greater in Taiwan (P < .001, OR = 3.9 per unit Shannon). Taiwanese CDI- patients had lower Bacteroidetes relative abundance (RA) (Figure 2). The Taiwanese CDI- group also differed on PCoA and ANOVA (Figure 3, P < .001). OTU1 (genus Firmicutes) was depleted in CDI+ patients (P < .001, OR = 0.69 per 10% RA increase). Circulating ribotypes (Table 1) differ between countries, with no epidemic strains (R027/R078) present in Taiwan (P = .027). R027 and 014/020 comprised > 50% of US isolates while > 50% of Taiwanese isolates were R002. Conclusion Taiwan and US CDI+ patients differ in dominant ribotypes. It is overall difficult to differentiate diarrheal CDI+ and CDI- patients by the microbiome. Taiwanese CDI- patients are outliers, and possible reasons (e.g., differential burden of parasitic infection; diet) require further study. The increased diversity and lower Bacteroidetes in CDI+ vs. CDI- diarrheal patients contrast with prior studies that instead compared with CDI- non-diarrheal patients. Circulating strains in Taiwan include no epidemic variants; whether this explains the differential incidence needs further study. Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.


2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boris Kotchoubey

Abstract Life History Theory (LHT) predicts a monotonous relationship between affluence and the rate of innovations and strong correlations within a cluster of behavioral features. Although both predictions can be true in specific cases, they are incorrect in general. Therefore, the author's explanations may be right, but they do not prove LHT and cannot be generalized to other apparently similar processes.


1988 ◽  
Vol 102 ◽  
pp. 215
Author(s):  
R.M. More ◽  
G.B. Zimmerman ◽  
Z. Zinamon

Autoionization and dielectronic attachment are usually omitted from rate equations for the non–LTE average–atom model, causing systematic errors in predicted ionization states and electronic populations for atoms in hot dense plasmas produced by laser irradiation of solid targets. We formulate a method by which dielectronic recombination can be included in average–atom calculations without conflict with the principle of detailed balance. The essential new feature in this extended average atom model is a treatment of strong correlations of electron populations induced by the dielectronic attachment process.


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