Links between resources, C metabolism and the major components of bacterioplankton community structure across a range of freshwater ecosystems

Niche selection in bacterioplankton: A study of taxonomic composition and single-cell characteristics in an acidic reservoir

Niche selection and microbial dispersal are key factors that shape microbial communities. However, their relative significance varies across different environments and spatiotemporal scales. While most studies focus on the impact of these forces on community composition, few consider other structural levels such as the physiological stage of the microbial community and single-cell characteristics. To understand the relative influence of microbial dispersal and niche selection on various community structural levels, we concurrently examined the taxonomic composition, abundance and single-cell characteristics of bacterioplankton in an acidic reservoir (El Sancho, Spain) during stratification and mixing periods. A cluster analysis based on environmental variables identified five niches during stratification and one during mixing. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) revealed that communities within each niche differed in both, taxonomic and single-cell characteristics. The environmental variables that explained the variation in class-based ordination differed from those explaining the ordination based on single-cell characteristics. However, a Procrustes analysis indicated a high correlation between the CCA ordinations based on both structural levels, suggesting simultaneous changes in the microbial community at multiple structural levels. Our findings underscore the dominant role of environmental selection in occupying different microbial niches, given that microbial dispersal was not restricted.

Divergent Fate and Roles of Dissolved Organic Matter from Spatially Varied Grassland Soils in China During Long-Term Biogeochemical Processes

Terrestrial dissolved organic matter (DOM) is critical to global carbon and nutrient cycling, climate change, and human health. However, how the spatial and compositional differences of soil DOM affect its dynamics and fate in water during the carbon cycle is largely unclear. Herein, the biodegradation of DOM from 14 spatially distributed grassland soils in China with diverse organic composition was investigated by 165 days of incubation experiments. The results showed that although the high humified fraction (high-HS) regions were featured by high humic-like fractions of 4-25 kDa molecular weight, especially the abundant condensed aromatics and tannins, they unexpectedly displayed greater DOM degradation during 45-165 days. In contrast, the unique proteinaceous and 25-100 kDa fractions enriched in the low humified fraction (low-HS) regions were drastically depleted and improved the decay of bulk DOM but only during 0-45 days. Together, DOM from the high-HS regions would cause lower CO2 outgassing to the atmosphere but higher organic loads for drinking water production in the short term than that from the low-HS regions. However, this would be reversed for the two regions during the long-term transformation processes. These findings highlight the importance of spatial and temporal variability of DOM biogeochemistry to mitigate the negative impacts of grassland soil DOM on climate, waters, and humans.

The Ecological Differentiation of Particle-Attached and Free-Living Bacterial Communities in a Seasonal Flooding Lake-the Poyang Lake

Particle-attached (PA) and free-living (FL) bacterial communities play essential roles in the biogeochemical cycling of essential nutrients in aquatic environments. However, little is known about the factors that drive the differentiation of bacterial lifestyles, especially in flooding lake systems. Here we assessed the compositional and functional similarities between the FL and PA bacterial fractions in a typical flooding lake-the Poyang Lake (PYL) of China. The results revealed that PA communities had significantly different compositions and functions from FL communities in every hydrological period, and the diversity of both PA and FL communities was affected mainly by the water regime rather than bacterial lifestyles. PA communities were more diverse and enriched with Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes, while FL communities had more Actinobacteria. There was a higher abundance of photosynthetic and nitrogen-cycling bacterial groups in PA communities, but a higher abundance of members involved in hydrocarbon degradation, aromatic hydrocarbon degradation, and methylotrophy in FL communities. Water properties (e.g., temperature, pH, total phosphorus) significantly regulated the lifestyle variations of PA and FL bacteria in PYL. Collectively, our results have demonstrated a clear ecological differentiation of PA and FL bacterial communities in flooding lakes, suggesting that the connectivity between FL and PA bacterial fractions is water property-related rather than water regime-related.

Diversity and distribution of sediment bacteria across an ecological and trophic gradient

The microbial communities of lake sediments have the potential to serve as valuable bioindicators and integrators of watershed land-use and water quality; however, the relative sensitivity of these communities to physio-chemical and geographical parameters must be demonstrated at taxonomic resolutions that are feasible by current sequencing and bioinformatic approaches. The geologically diverse and lake-rich state of Minnesota (USA) is uniquely situated to address this potential because of its variability in ecological region, lake type, and watershed land-use. In this study, we selected twenty lakes with varying physio-chemical properties across four ecological regions of Minnesota. Our objectives were to (i) evaluate the diversity and composition of the bacterial community at the sediment-water interface and (ii) determine how lake location and watershed land-use impact aqueous chemistry and influence bacterial community structure. Our 16S rRNA amplicon data from lake sediment cores, at two depth intervals, data indicate that sediment communities are more likely to cluster by ecological region rather than any individual lake properties (e.g., trophic status, total phosphorous concentration, lake depth). However, composition is tied to a given lake, wherein samples from the same core were more alike than samples collected at similar depths across lakes. Our results illustrate the diversity within lake sediment microbial communities and provide insight into relationships between taxonomy, physicochemical, and geographic properties of north temperate lakes.

Aquatic microbial community is partially functionally redundant: Insights from an in situ reciprocal transplant experiment

Microbial communities are considered to be functionally redundant, but few studies have tested this hypothesis empirically. In this study, we performed an in situ reciprocal transplant experiment on the surface and bottom waters of two lakes (Tsuei-Feng (T) and Yuan-Yang (Y)) with disparate trophic states and tracked changes in their microbial community composition and functions for 6 weeks using high-throughput sequencing and functional approaches. T lake's surface (Ts) and bottom (Tb) water active bacterial community (16S rRNA gene-transcript) was dominated by Actinobacteria, Bacteroidia, and Cyanobacteria, whereas Y lake's surface (Ys) and bottom (Yb) water had Gammaproteobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria, and Bacteroidia as the dominant classes. The community composition was resistant to changes in environmental conditions following the reciprocal transplant, but their functions tended to become similar to the incubating lakes' functional profiles. A significant linear positive relationship was observed between the microbial community and functional attributes (surface: R² = 0.5065, p < 0.0001; bottom: R² = 0.4592, p < 0.0001), though with varying scales of similarity (1-Bray Curtis distance), suggesting partial functional redundancy. Also, the entropy-based L-divergence measure identified high divergence in community composition (surface: 1.21 ± 0.54; bottom: 1.17 ± 0.51), and relatively low divergence in functional attributes (surface: 0.04 ± 0.01; bottom: 0.04 ± 0.01) in the two lakes' surface and bottom waters, providing further support for the presence of partial functional redundancy. This study enriches our understanding of community functional relationships and establishes the presence of partial functional redundancy in freshwater ecosystems.

Recurrent seasonal changes in bacterial growth efficiency, metabolism and community composition in coastal waters

The microbial response to environmental changes in coastal waters of the eastern Cantabrian Sea was explored for four years by analysing a broad set of environmental variables along with bacterial community metabolism and composition. A recurrent seasonal cycle emerged, consisting of two stable periods, characterized by low bacterial metabolic activity (winter) from October to March, and high bacterial metabolic activity (summer) from May to August. These two contrasting periods were linked by short transition periods in April (T_A ) and September (T_S ). The phylogenetic groups Alphaproteobacteria and Bacteroidetes were dominant during winter and summer respectively, and their recurrent alternation was mainly driven by the bloom of eukaryotic phytoplankton before T_A and the bloom of prokaryotic phytoplankton before T_S . Bacterial growth efficiency remained high and stable during the winter and summer periods but dropped during the two short transition periods. Our results suggest that bacterial growth efficiency should be considered a very resilient property that reflects different stages in the adaptation of the bacterial community composition to the environmental changes occurring throughout the seasonal cycle in this coastal ecosystem.

Large but variable methane production in anoxic freshwater sediment upon addition of allochthonous and autochthonous organic matter

An important question in the context of climate change is to understand how CH4 production is regulated in anoxic sediments of lakes and reservoirs. The type of organic carbon (OC) present in lakes is a key factor controlling CH4 production at anoxic conditions, but the studies investigating the methanogenic potential of the main OC types are fragmented. We incubated different types of allochthonous OC (alloOC; terrestrial plant leaves) and autochthonous OC (autoOC; phytoplankton and two aquatic plants species) in an anoxic sediment during 130 d. We tested if (1) the supply of fresh alloOC and autoOC to an anoxic refractory sediment would fuel CH4 production and if (2) autoOC would decompose faster than alloOC. The addition of fresh OC greatly increased CH4 production and the δ13C-CH4 partitioning indicated that CH4 originated exclusively from the fresh OC. The large CH4 production in an anoxic sediment fueled by alloOC is a new finding which indicates that all systems with anoxic conditions and high sedimentation rates have the potential to be CH4 emitters. The autoOC decomposed faster than alloOC, but the total CH4 production was not higher for all autoOC types, one aquatic plant species having values as low as the terrestrial leaves, and the other one having values as high as phytoplankton. Our study is the first to report such variability, suggesting that the extent to which C fixed by aquatic plants is emitted as greenhouse gases or buried as OC in sediment could more generally differ between aquatic vegetation types.

Sediment bacteria in an urban stream: Spatiotemporal patterns in community composition

Sediment bacterial communities play a critical role in biogeochemical cycling in lotic ecosystems. Despite their ecological significance, the effects of urban discharge on spatiotemporal distribution of bacterial communities are understudied. In this study, we examined the effect of urban discharge on the spatiotemporal distribution of stream sediment bacteria in a northeast Ohio stream. Water and sediment samples were collected after large storm events (discharge > 100 m) from sites along a highly impacted stream (Tinkers Creek, Cuyahoga River watershed, Ohio, USA) and two reference streams. Although alpha (α) diversity was relatively constant spatially, multivariate analysis of bacterial community 16S rDNA profiles revealed significant spatial and temporal effects on beta (β) diversity and community composition and identified a number of significant correlative abiotic parameters. Clustering of upstream and reference sites from downstream sites of Tinkers Creek combined with the dominant families observed in specific locales suggests that environmentally-induced species sorting had a strong impact on the composition of sediment bacterial communities. Distinct groupings of bacterial families that are often associated with nutrient pollution (i.e., Comamonadaceae, Rhodobacteraceae, and Pirellulaceae) and other contaminants (i.e., Sphingomonadaceae and Phyllobacteriaceae) were more prominent at sites experiencing higher degrees of discharge associated with urbanization. Additionally, there were marked seasonal changes in community composition, with individual taxa exhibiting different seasonal abundance patterns. However, spatiotemporal variation in stream conditions did not affect bacterial community functional profiles. Together, these results suggest that local environmental drivers and niche filtering from discharge events associated with urbanization shape the bacterial community structure. However, dispersal limitations and interactions among other species likely play a role as well.

Coupling Bacterioplankton Populations and Environment to Community Function in Coastal Temperate Waters

Bacterioplankton play a key role in marine waters facilitating processes important for carbon cycling. However, the influence of specific bacterial populations and environmental conditions on bacterioplankton community performance remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to identify drivers of bacterioplankton community functions, taking into account the variability in community composition and environmental conditions over seasons, in two contrasting coastal systems. A Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) analysis of the biological and chemical data obtained from surface waters over a full year indicated that specific bacterial populations were linked to measured functions. Namely, Synechococcus (Cyanobacteria) was strongly correlated with protease activity. Both function and community composition showed seasonal variation. However, the pattern of substrate utilization capacity could not be directly linked to the community dynamics. The overall importance of dissolved organic matter (DOM) parameters in the LASSO models indicate that bacterioplankton respond to the present substrate landscape, with a particular importance of nitrogenous DOM. The identification of common drivers of bacterioplankton community functions in two different systems indicates that the drivers may be of broader relevance in coastal temperate waters.

Nutrient capture and recycling by periphyton attached to modified agrowaste carriers

The reuse of periphytic biofilm from traditional wastewater treatment (i.e., active sludge process) is inefficient to recycle nutrients due to low accumulation of nutrients. Then, in this study, peanut shell (PS), rice husk (RH), decomposed peanut shell (DPS), acidified rice husks (ARH), and a commonly used carrier-ceramsite (C, as the control)-were used to support the growth of periphyton. Results showed that DPS and ARH supported significantly higher periphyton biomass and metabolic versatility than PS and RH, respectively, due to the increased presence of positive groups. The total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) captured by periphyton were enhanced by 600-657 and 833-3255 % for DPS, and 461-1808 and 21-308 % for ARH, respectively. The removal of nutrients from simulated eutrophic surface waters using periphyton attached to DPS was improved by 24-47 % for TP, 12-048 % for TN, and 15-78 % for nitrate compared to the control. The results indicate that the periphyton attached to modified agrowaste was capable of efficiently entrapping and storing N and P from eutrophic water. This study also implies that the mixture of periphyton and the modified agrowaste carriers are promising raw materials of biofertilizer.

Experimental insights into the importance of aquatic bacterial community composition to the degradation of dissolved organic matter

Bacteria play a central role in the cycling of carbon, yet our understanding of the relationship between the taxonomic composition and the degradation of dissolved organic matter (DOM) is still poor. In this experimental study, we were able to demonstrate a direct link between community composition and ecosystem functioning in that differently structured aquatic bacterial communities differed in their degradation of terrestrially derived DOM. Although the same amount of carbon was processed, both the temporal pattern of degradation and the compounds degraded differed among communities. We, moreover, uncovered that low-molecular-weight carbon was available to all communities for utilisation, whereas the ability to degrade carbon of greater molecular weight was a trait less widely distributed. Finally, whereas the degradation of either low- or high-molecular-weight carbon was not restricted to a single phylogenetic clade, our results illustrate that bacterial taxa of similar phylogenetic classification differed substantially in their association with the degradation of DOM compounds. Applying techniques that capture the diversity and complexity of both bacterial communities and DOM, our study provides new insight into how the structure of bacterial communities may affect processes of biogeochemical significance.

Stream microbial diversity in response to environmental changes: review and synthesis of existing research

The importance of microbial activity to ecosystem function in aquatic ecosystems is well established, but microbial diversity has been less frequently addressed. This review and synthesis of 100s of published studies on stream microbial diversity shows that factors known to drive ecosystem processes, such as nutrient availability, hydrology, metal contamination, contrasting land-use and temperature, also cause heterogeneity in bacterial diversity. Temporal heterogeneity in stream bacterial diversity was frequently observed, reflecting the dynamic nature of both stream ecosystems and microbial community composition. However, within-stream spatial differences in stream bacterial diversity were more commonly observed, driven specifically by different organic matter (OM) compartments. Bacterial phyla showed similar patterns in relative abundance with regard to compartment type across different streams. For example, surface water contained the highest relative abundance of Actinobacteria, while epilithon contained the highest relative abundance of Cyanobacteria and Bacteroidetes. This suggests that contrasting physical and/or nutritional habitats characterized by different stream OM compartment types may select for certain bacterial lineages. When comparing the prevalence of physicochemical effects on stream bacterial diversity, effects of changing metal concentrations were most, while effects of differences in nutrient concentrations were least frequently observed. This may indicate that although changing nutrient concentrations do tend to affect microbial diversity, other environmental factors are more likely to alter stream microbial diversity and function. The common observation of connections between ecosystem process drivers and microbial diversity suggests that microbial taxonomic turnover could mediate ecosystem-scale responses to changing environmental conditions, including both microbial habitat distribution and physicochemical factors.

Frequencies of heavy metal resistance are associated with land cover type in the Upper Mississippi River

Taxonomic compositions of freshwater bacterial communities have been well-characterized via metagenomic and amplicon-based approaches, especially next-generation sequencing. However, functional diversity of these communities remains less well-studied. Various anthropogenic sources are known to impact the bacterial community composition in freshwater riverine systems and potentially alter functional diversity. In this study, high-throughput functional screening of large (~10,000 clones) fosmid libraries representing communities in the Upper Mississippi River revealed low frequencies of resistance to heavy metals in the following order: Mn2+>Cr3+>Zn2+>Cd2+>Hg2+. No resistance to Cu2+ was detected. Significant, but weak, correlations were observed between resistance frequencies of Cd and Cr with developed land cover (r2=0.08, P=0.016 and r=0.07, P=0.037, respectively). While discriminant function analyses further supported these associations, redundancy analysis further indicated associations with forested land cover and greater resistance to Hg and Zn. Nutrient and metal ion concentrations and abundances of bacterial orders were poorly correlated with heavy metal resistance, except for an association of Pseudomonadales abundance and resistance to Hg and Zn. Taken together, results of this study suggest that allochthonous bacteria contributed from specific land cover types influence the patterns of metal resistance throughout this river.

Bacterial community composition and physiological shifts associated with the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in the Patos Lagoon estuary

The Patos Lagoon estuary is a microtidal system that is strongly regulated by atmospheric forces, including remote large-scale phenomena such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which affects precipitation patterns in the region. In this study, we investigated whether the bacterial community composition (BCC), community-level physiological profiles (CLPP), and a set of environmental variables were affected by the transition from a moderate El Niño to a strong La Niña event (June 2010 to May 2011). We identified two distinct periods: a period following El Niño that was characterized by low salinity and high concentrations of NO3(-) and PO4(-3) and low molecular weight (LMW) substances and a period following La Niña during which salinity, temperature, and transparency increased and the concentrations of nutrients and LMW substances decreased. The BCC and CLPP were significantly altered in response to this transition. This is the first study addressing the effect of ENSO on bacteria at the community level in an estuarine system. Our results suggest that there is a link between ENSO and bacteria, indicating the role of climate variability in bacterial activities and, hence, the cycling of organic matter by these microorganisms.

Viral and grazer regulation of prokaryotic growth efficiency in temperate freshwater pelagic environments

In aquatic systems, limited data exists on the impact of mortality forces such as viral lysis and flagellate grazing when seeking to explain factors regulating prokaryotic metabolism. We explored the relative influence of top-down factors (viral lysis and heterotrophic nanoflagellate grazing) on prokaryotic mortality and their subsequent impact on their community metabolism in the euphotic zone of 21 temperate freshwater lakes located in the French Massif Central. Prokaryotic growth efficiency (PGE, index of prokaryotic community metabolism) determined from prokaryotic production and respiration measurements varied from 5 to 74% across the lakes. Viral and potential grazer-induced mortality of prokaryotes had contrasting impact on PGE. Potential flagellate grazing was found to enhance PGE whereas viral lysis had antagonistic impacts on PGE. The average PGE value in the grazing and viral lysis dominated lake water samples was 35.4% (±15.2%) and 17.2% (±8.1%), respectively. Selective viral lysis or flagellate grazing on prokaryotes together with the nature of contrasted substrates released through mortality processes can perhaps explain for the observed variation and differences in PGE among the studied lakes. The influences of such specific top-down processes on PGE can have strong implications on the carbon and nutrient fluxes in freshwater pelagic environments.

Relationships between bacterial community composition, functional trait composition and functioning are context dependent--but what is the context?

Bacterial communities are immensely diverse and drive many fundamental ecosystem processes. However, the role of bacterial community composition (BCC) for functioning is still unclear. Here we evaluate the relative importance of BCC (from 454-sequencing), functional traits (from Biolog Ecoplates) and environmental conditions for per cell biomass production (BPC; ³H-leucine incorporation) in six data sets of natural freshwater bacterial communities. BCC explained significant variation of BPC in all six data sets and most variation in four. BCC measures based on 16S rRNA (active bacteria) did not consistently explain more variation in BPC than measures based on the 16S rRNA-gene (total community), and adding phylogenetic information did not, in general, increase the explanatory power of BCC. In contrast to our hypothesis, the importance of BCC for BPC was not related to the anticipated dispersal rates in and out of communities. Functional traits, most notably the ability to use cyclic and aromatic compounds, as well as local environmental conditions, i.e. stoichiometric relationships of nutrients, explained some variation in all six data sets. In general there were weak associations between variation in BCC and variation in the functional traits contributing to productivity. This indicates that additional traits may be important for productivity as well. By comparing several data sets obtained in a similar way we conclude that no single measure of BCC was obviously better than another in explaining BPC. We identified some key functional traits for productivity, but although there was a coupling between BCC, functional traits and productivity, the strength of the coupling seems context dependent. However, the exact context is still unresolved.

Bacterial community structure is indicative of chemical inputs in the Upper Mississippi River

Local and regional associations between bacterial communities and nutrient and chemical concentrations were assessed in the Upper Mississippi River in Minnesota to determine if community structure was associated with discrete types of chemical inputs associated with different land cover. Bacterial communities were characterized by Illumina sequencing of the V6 region of 16S rDNA and compared to >40 chemical and nutrient concentrations. Local bacterial community structure was shaped primarily by associations among bacterial orders. However, order abundances were correlated regionally with nutrient and chemical concentrations, and were also related to major land coverage types. Total organic carbon and total dissolved solids were among the primary abiotic factors associated with local community composition and co-varied with land cover. Escherichia coli concentration was poorly related to community composition or nutrient concentrations. Abundances of 14 bacterial orders were related to land coverage type, and seven showed significant differences in abundance (P ≤ 0.046) between forested or anthropogenically-impacted sites. This study identifies specific bacterial orders that were associated with chemicals and nutrients derived from specific land cover types and may be useful in assessing water quality. Results of this study reveal the need to investigate community dynamics at both the local and regional scales and to identify shifts in taxonomic community structure that may be useful in determining sources of pollution in the Upper Mississippi River.

Core functional traits of bacterial communities in the Upper Mississippi River show limited variation in response to land cover

Taxonomic characterization of environmental microbial communities via high-throughput DNA sequencing has revealed that patterns in microbial biogeography affect community structure. However, shifts in functional diversity related to variation in taxonomic composition are poorly understood. To overcome limitations due to the prohibitive cost of high-depth metagenomic sequencing, tools to infer functional diversity based on phylogenetic distributions of functional traits have been developed. In this study we characterized functional microbial diversity at 11 sites along the Mississippi River in Minnesota using both metagenomic sequencing and functional-inference-based (PICRUSt) approaches. This allowed us to determine how distance and variation in land cover throughout the river influenced the distribution of functional traits, as well as to validate PICRUSt inferences. The distribution and abundance of functional traits, by metagenomic analysis, were similar among sites, with a median standard deviation of 0.0002% among tier 3 functions in KEGG. Overall inferred functional variation was significantly different (P ≤ 0.035) between two water basins surrounded by agricultural vs. developed land cover, and abundances of bacterial orders that correlated with functional traits by metagenomic analysis were greater where abundances of the trait were inferred to be higher. PICRUSt inferences were significantly correlated (r = 0.147, P = 1.80 × 10(-30)) with metagenomic annotations. Discrepancies between metagenomic and PICRUSt taxonomic-functional relationships, however, suggested potential functional redundancy among abundant and rare taxa that impeded the ability to accurately assess unique functional traits among rare taxa at this sequencing depth. Results of this study suggest that a suite of "core functional traits" is conserved throughout the river and distributions of functional traits, rather than specific taxa, may shift in response to environmental heterogeneity.

Metacommunity dynamics of bacteria in an arctic lake: the impact of species sorting and mass effects on bacterial production and biogeography

To understand mechanisms linking ecosystem processes and microbial diversity in freshwater ecosystems, bacterial productivity and the metacommunity dynamics of species sorting and mass effects were investigated in an 18 ha headwater lake in northern Alaska. On most sampling dates, the phylogenetic composition of bacterial communities in inflowing streams (inlets) was strikingly different than that in the lake and the outflowing stream (outlet) (16S DGGE fingerprinting), demonstrating the shift in composition that occurs as these communities transit the lake. Outlet and downstream communities were also more productive than inlet and upstream communities ((14)C-leucine incorporation). Inlet bacteria transplanted to the outlet stream in dialysis bags were equally or less productive than control bacteria, suggesting that the inlet bacteria are capable of growing under lake conditions, but do not remain abundant because of species sorting in the lake. Outlet bacteria (representative of epilimnetic bacteria) transplanted to the inlet stream were less productive than control bacteria, suggesting that lake bacteria are not as well adapted to growing under inlet conditions. Based on water density, inlet stream water and bacteria generally entered the lake at the base of the epilimnion. However, during low to medium flow in the inlet stream the residence time of the epilimnion was too long relative to bacterial doubling times for these allochthonous bacteria to have a mass effect on the composition of outlet bacteria. The highest community similarity between inlet and outlet bacteria was detected after a large rain event in 2003, with over 61% similarity (average non-storm similarities were 39 ± 8%). While mass effects may be important during large storm events, species sorting appears to be the predominant mechanism structuring bacterial communities within the lake, leading to the assembly of a lake community that has lost some ability to function in stream habitats.

Tropical freshwater ecosystems have lower bacterial growth efficiency than temperate ones

Current models and observations indicate that bacterial respiration should increase and growth efficiency (BGE) should decrease with increasing temperatures. However, these models and observations are mostly derived from data collected in temperate regions, and the tropics are under-represented. The aim of this work was to compare bacterial metabolism, namely bacterial production (BP) and respiration (BR), bacterial growth efficiency (BGE) and bacterial carbon demand (BCD) between tropical and temperate ecosystems via a literature review and using unpublished data. We hypothesized that (1) tropical ecosystems have higher metabolism than temperate ones and, (2) that BGE is lower in tropical relative to temperate ecosystems. We collected a total of 498 coupled BP and BR observations (N_total = 498; N_temperate = 301; N_tropical = 197), calculated BGE (BP/(BP+BR)) and BCD (BP+BR) for each case and examined patterns using a model II regression analysis and compared each parameter between the two regions using non-parametric Mann–Whitney U test. We observed a significant positive linear regression between BR and BP for the whole dataset, and also for tropical and temperate data separately. We found that BP, BR and BCD were higher in the tropics, but BGE was lower compared to temperate regions. Also, BR rates per BP unit were at least two fold higher in the tropics than in temperate ecosystems. We argue that higher temperature, nutrient limitation, and light exposure all contribute to lower BGE in the tropics, mediated through effects on thermodynamics, substrate stoichiometry, nutrient availability and interactions with photochemically produced compounds. More efforts are needed in this study area in the tropics, but our work indicates that bottom-up (nutrient availability and resource stoichiometry) and top-down (grazer pressure) processes, coupled with thermodynamic constraints, might contribute to the lower BGE in the tropics relative to temperate regions.

Stream hydrological fragmentation drives bacterioplankton community composition

In Mediterranean intermittent streams, the hydrological fragmentation in summer and the successive water flow re-convergence in autumn allow exploring how local processes shape the microbial community within the same habitat. The objectives of this study were to determine how bacterial community composition responded to hydrological fragmentation in summer, and to evaluate whether the seasonal shifts in community composition predominate over the effects of episodic habitat fragmentation. The bacterial community was assessed along the intermittent stream Fuirosos (Spain), at different levels of phylogenetic resolution by in situ hybridization, fingerprinting, and 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The hydrological fragmentation of the stream network strongly altered the biogeochemical conditions with the depletion of oxidized solutes and caused changes in dissolved organic carbon characteristics. In the isolated ponds, beta-Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria increased their abundance with a gradual reduction of the alpha-diversity as pond isolation time increased. Moreover, fingerprinting analysis clearly showed a shift in community composition between summer and autumn. In the context of a seasonal shift, the temporary stream fragmentation simultaneously reduced the microbial dispersion and affected local environmental conditions (shift in redox regime and quality of the dissolved organic matter) tightly shaping the bacterioplankton community composition.

Links between metabolic plasticity and functional redundancy in freshwater bacterioplankton communities

Metabolic plasticity and functional redundancy are fundamental properties of microbial communities, which shape their response to environmental forcing, and also mediate the relationship between community composition and function. Yet, the actual quantification of these emergent community properties has been elusive, and we thus do not know how they vary across bacterial communities, and their relationship to environmental gradients and to each other. Here we present an experimental framework that allows us to simultaneously quantify metabolic plasticity and functional redundancy in freshwater bacterioplankton communities, and to explore connections that may exists between them. We define metabolic plasticity as the rate of change in single-cell properties (cell wall integrity, cell size, single-cell activity) relative to changes in community composition. Likewise, we define functional redundancy as the rate of change in carbon substrate uptake capacities relative to changes in community composition. We assessed these two key community attributes in transplant experiments where bacterioplankton from various aquatic habitats within the same watershed were transplanted from their original water to waters from other systems that differ in their main resources. Our results show that metabolic plasticity is an intrinsic property of bacterial communities, whereas the expression of functional redundancy appears to be more dependent on environmental factors. Furthermore, there was an overall strong positive relationship between the level of functional redundancy and of metabolic plasticity, suggesting no trade-offs between these community attributes but rather a possible co-selection. The apparent continuum in the expression of both functional redundancy and plasticity among bacterial communities and the link between them, in turn suggest that the link between community diversity and function may also vary along a continuum, from being very tight, to being weak, or absent.

Temporal dynamics in the free-living bacterial community composition in the coastal North Sea

The coastal North Sea is characterized by strong seasonal dynamics in abiotic and biotic variables. Hence, pronounced temporal changes in the bacterioplankton community composition can be expected. Catalyzed reporter deposition fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis showed a seasonal succession, with Alphaproteobacteria dominating before the spring phytoplankton bloom, Bacteroidetes increasing during the bloom (up to 60% of the prokaryotic community) and being replaced by Gammaproteobacteria during the postbloom period (on average 30% of prokaryotic cells). Daily changes in similarity of the bacterioplankton community assessed by Terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism averaged 0.08 day⁻¹ (Whittaker similarity index) for the free-living bacterial community, resulting in a decreasing similarity between samples with increasing time up to approximately 150 days. After about 150 days, the community composition became increasingly similar to the initial composition. Changes in the bacterial community showed periods of fairly stable composition, interrupted by periods of rapid changes. Taken together, our results support the notion of a recurring bacterioplankton community in the coastal North Sea and indicate a tight coupling between the resources, the bacterial community metabolism, physiological structure and community composition throughout the seasonal cycle in the coastal North Sea.

Effects of disturbance intensity and frequency on bacterial community composition and function

Disturbances influence community structure and ecosystem functioning. Bacteria are key players in ecosystems and it is therefore crucial to understand the effect of disturbances on bacterial communities and how they respond to them, both compositionally and functionally. The main aim of this study was to test the effect of differences in disturbance strength on bacterial communities. For this, we implemented two independent short-term experiments with dialysis bags containing natural bacterial communities, which were transplanted between ambient and ‘disturbed’ incubation tanks, manipulating either the intensity or the frequency of a salinity disturbance. We followed changes in community composition by terminal restriction fragment analysis (T-RFLP) and measured various community functions (bacterial production, carbon substrate utilization profiles and rates) directly after and after a short period of recovery under ambient conditions. Increases in disturbance strength resulted in gradually stronger changes in bacterial community composition and functions. In the disturbance intensity experiment, the sensitivity to the disturbance and the ability of recovery differed between different functions. In the disturbance frequency experiment, effects on the different functions were more consistent and recovery was not observed. Moreover, in case of the intensity experiment, there was also a time lag in the responses of community composition and functions, with functional responses being faster than compositional ones. To summarize, our study shows that disturbance strength has the potential to change the functional performance and composition of bacterial communities. It further highlights that the overall effects, rates of recovery and the degree of congruence in the response patterns of community composition and functioning along disturbance gradients depend on the type of function and the character of the disturbance.

Resistance and resilience of microbial communities--temporal and spatial insurance against perturbations

Bacteria play fundamental roles for many ecosystem processes; however, little empirical evidence is available on how environmental perturbations affect their composition and function. We investigated how spatial and temporal refuges affect the resistance and resilience of a freshwater bacterioplankton community upon a salinity pulse perturbation in continuous cultures. Attachment to a surface avoided the flushing out of cells and enabled re-colonization of the liquid phase after the perturbation, hence serving as a temporal refuge. A spatial refuge was established by introduction of bacteria from an undisturbed reservoir upstream of the continuous culture vessel, acting analogous to a regional species pool in a metacommunity. The salinity pulse affected bacterial community composition and the rates of respiration and the pattern of potential substrate utilization as well as the correlation between composition and function. Compared with the no-refuge treatment, the temporal refuge shortened return to pre-perturbation conditions, indicating enhanced community resilience. Composition and function were less disturbed in the treatment providing a spatial refuge, suggesting higher resistance. Our results highlight that spatial and temporal dynamics in general and refuges in particular need to be considered for conceptual progress in how microbial metacommunities are shaped by perturbations.

Disconnect of microbial structure and function: enzyme activities and bacterial communities in nascent stream corridors

A fundamental issue in microbial and general ecology is the question to what extent environmental conditions dictate the structure of communities and the linkages with functional properties of ecosystems (that is, ecosystem function). We approached this question by taking advantage of environmental gradients established in soil and sediments of small stream corridors in a recently created, early successional catchment. Specifically, we determined spatial and temporal patterns of bacterial community structure and their linkages with potential microbial enzyme activities along the hydrological flow paths of the catchment. Soil and sediments were sampled in a total of 15 sites on four occasions spread throughout a year. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) was used to characterize bacterial communities, and substrate analogs linked to fluorescent molecules served to track 10 different enzymes as specific measures of ecosystem function. Potential enzyme activities varied little among sites, despite contrasting environmental conditions, especially in terms of water availability. Temporal changes, in contrast, were pronounced and remarkably variable among the enzymes tested. This suggests much greater importance of temporal dynamics than spatial heterogeneity in affecting specific ecosystem functions. Most strikingly, bacterial community structure revealed neither temporal nor spatial patterns. The resulting disconnect between bacterial community structure and potential enzyme activities indicates high functional redundancy within microbial communities even in the physically and biologically simplified stream corridors of early successional landscapes.

The importance of dispersal for bacterial community composition and functioning

We conducted a metacommunity experiment to investigate the role of dispersal for bacterial community composition (BCC) and function of freshwater bacteria. Bacteria were dispersed from a common source pool into three different lake communities in their natural lake water. The experiment was conducted in dialysis bags to enable a decoupling between a change in the local environment and dispersal. BCC was determined by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (tRFLP) of the 16S rRNA gene. We show that the greatest changes in BCC occurred between 10% and 43% of dispersal of standing stock per day. Functioning, measured as growth rate, was also affected by dispersal in all three communities but the qualitative pattern differed between communities, sometimes showing a hump-shaped relationship to dispersal and sometimes decreasing with increasing dispersal. In all waters, functioning was related to BCC. Our results show that dispersal does affect BCC and functioning but that high dispersal rates are needed. Further, the effect of dispersal on BCC and function seem to depend on the quality of the habitat to which bacteria disperse into.

Composition influences the pathway but not the outcome of the metabolic response of bacterioplankton to resource shifts

Bacterioplankton community metabolism is central to the functioning of aquatic ecosystems, and strongly reactive to changes in the environment, yet the processes underlying this response remain unclear. Here we explore the role that community composition plays in shaping the bacterial metabolic response to resource gradients that occur along aquatic ecotones in a complex watershed in Québec. Our results show that the response is mediated by complex shifts in community structure, and structural equation analysis confirmed two main pathways, one involving adjustments in the level of activity of existing phylotypes, and the other the replacement of the dominant phylotypes. These contrasting response pathways were not determined by the type or the intensity of the gradients involved, as we had hypothesized, but rather it would appear that some compositional configurations may be intrinsically more plastic than others. Our results suggest that community composition determines this overall level of community plasticity, but that composition itself may be driven by factors independent of the environmental gradients themselves, such that the response of bacterial communities to a given type of gradient may alternate between the adjustment and replacement pathways. We conclude that community composition influences the pathways of response in these bacterial communities, but not the metabolic outcome itself, which is driven by the environment, and which can be attained through multiple alternative configurations.