Dataset Information

Quantification of ammonia oxidation rates and the distribution of ammonia-oxidizing Archaea and Bacteria in marine sediment depth profiles from Catalina Island, California.

ABSTRACT: Microbial communities present in marine sediments play a central role in nitrogen biogeochemistry at local to global scales. Along the oxidation-reduction gradients present in sediment profiles, multiple nitrogen cycling processes (such as nitrification, denitrification, nitrogen fixation, and anaerobic ammonium oxidation) are active and actively coupled to one another - yet the microbial communities responsible for these transformations and the rates at which they occur are still poorly understood. We report pore water geochemical (O(2), [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text]) profiles, quantitative profiles of archaeal and bacterial amoA genes, and ammonia oxidation rate measurements, from bioturbated marine sediments of Catalina Island, California. Across triplicate sediment cores collected offshore at Bird Rock (BR) and within Catalina Harbor (CH), oxygen penetration (0.24-0.5 cm depth) and the abundance of amoA genes (up to 9.30 × 10(7) genes g(-) (1)) varied with depth and between cores. Bacterial amoA genes were consistently present at depths of up to 10 cm, and archaeal amoA was readily detected in BR cores, and CH cores from 2008, but not 2007. Although detection of DNA is not necessarily indicative of active growth and metabolism, ammonia oxidation rate measurements made in 2008 (using isotope tracer) demonstrated the production of oxidized nitrogen at depths where amoA was present. Rates varied with depth and between cores, but indicate that active ammonia oxidation occurs at up to 10 cm depth in bioturbated CH sediments, where it may be carried out by either or both ammonia-oxidizing archaea and bacteria.

SUBMITTER: Beman JM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3403348 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Quantification of ammonia oxidation rates and the distribution of ammonia-oxidizing Archaea and Bacteria in marine sediment depth profiles from Catalina Island, California.

Beman J M JM Bertics Victoria J VJ Braunschweiler Thomas T Wilson Jesse M JM

Frontiers in microbiology 20120724

Microbial communities present in marine sediments play a central role in nitrogen biogeochemistry at local to global scales. Along the oxidation-reduction gradients present in sediment profiles, multiple nitrogen cycling processes (such as nitrification, denitrification, nitrogen fixation, and anaerobic ammonium oxidation) are active and actively coupled to one another - yet the microbial communities responsible for these transformations and the rates at which they occur are still poorly underst ...[more]

PMID: 22837756

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Project description:High iron and eutrophic conditions are reported as environmental factors leading to accelerated low-water corrosion, an enhanced form of near-shore microbial induced corrosion. To explore this hypothesis, we deployed flow-through colonization systems in laboratory-based aquarium tanks under a continuous flow of surface seawater from Santa Catalina Island, CA, USA, for periods of 2 and 6 months. Substrates consisted of mild steel - a major constituent of maritime infrastructure - and the naturally occurring iron sulfide mineral pyrite. Four conditions were tested: free-venting "high-flux" conditions; a "stagnant" condition; an "active" flow-through condition with seawater slowly pumped over the substrates; and an "enrichment" condition where the slow pumping of seawater was supplemented with nutrient rich medium. Electron microscopy analyses of the 2-month high flux incubations document coating of substrates with "twisted stalks," resembling iron oxyhydroxide bioprecipitates made by marine neutrophilic Fe-oxidizing bacteria (FeOB). Six-month incubations exhibit increased biofilm and substrate corrosion in the active flow and nutrient enriched conditions relative to the stagnant condition. A scarcity of twisted stalks was observed for all 6 month slow-flow conditions compared to the high-flux condition, which may be attributable to oxygen concentrations in the slow-flux conditions being prohibitively low for sustained growth of stalk-producing bacteria. All substrates developed microbial communities reflective of the original seawater input, as based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Deltaproteobacteria sequences increased in relative abundance in the active flow and nutrient enrichment conditions, whereas Gammaproteobacteria sequences were relatively more abundant in the stagnant condition. These results indicate that (i) high-flux incubations with higher oxygen availability favor the development of biofilms with twisted stalks resembling those of marine neutrophilic FeOB and (ii) long-term nutrient stimulation results in substrate corrosion and biofilms with different bacterial community composition and structure relative to stagnant and non-nutritionally enhanced incubations. Similar microbial succession scenarios, involving increases in nutritional input leading to the proliferation of anaerobic iron and sulfur-cycling guilds, may occur at the nearby Port of Los Angeles and cause potential damage to maritime port infrastructure.

Project description:BackgroundThe global distribution of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA), which play a pivotal role in the nitrification process, has been confirmed through numerous ecological studies. Though newly available amoA (ammonia monooxygenase subunit A) gene sequences from new environments are accumulating rapidly in public repositories, a lack of information on the ecological and evolutionary factors shaping community assembly of AOA on the global scale is apparent.Methodology and resultsWe conducted a meta-analysis on uncultured AOA using over ca. 6,200 archaeal amoA gene sequences, so as to reveal their community distribution patterns along a wide spectrum of physicochemical conditions and habitat types. The sequences were dereplicated at 95% identity level resulting in a dataset containing 1,476 archaeal amoA gene sequences from eight habitat types: namely soil, freshwater, freshwater sediment, estuarine sediment, marine water, marine sediment, geothermal system, and symbiosis. The updated comprehensive amoA phylogeny was composed of three major monophyletic clusters (i.e. Nitrosopumilus, Nitrosotalea, Nitrosocaldus) and a non-monophyletic cluster constituted mostly by soil and sediment sequences that we named Nitrososphaera. Diversity measurements indicated that marine and estuarine sediments as well as symbionts might be the largest reservoirs of AOA diversity. Phylogenetic analyses were further carried out using macroevolutionary analyses to explore the diversification pattern and rates of nitrifying archaea. In contrast to other habitats that displayed constant diversification rates, marine planktonic AOA interestingly exhibit a very recent and accelerating diversification rate congruent with the lowest phylogenetic diversity observed in their habitats. This result suggested the existence of AOA communities with different evolutionary history in the different habitats.Conclusion and significanceBased on an up-to-date amoA phylogeny, this analysis provided insights into the possible evolutionary mechanisms and environmental parameters that shape AOA community assembly at global scale.

Dataset Information

Quantification of ammonia oxidation rates and the distribution of ammonia-oxidizing Archaea and Bacteria in marine sediment depth profiles from Catalina Island, California.

Publications

Quantification of ammonia oxidation rates and the distribution of ammonia-oxidizing Archaea and Bacteria in marine sediment depth profiles from Catalina Island, California.

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