Aquatic heterotrophic bacteria have highly flexible phosphorus content and biomass stoichiometry.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Godwin CM
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4579474 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Oct
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Aquatic heterotrophic bacteria have highly flexible phosphorus content and biomass stoichiometry.
Godwin Casey M CM Cotner James B JB
The ISME journal 20150320 10
Bacteria are central to the cycling of carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in every ecosystem, yet our understanding of how tightly these cycles are coupled to bacterial biomass composition is based upon data from only a few species. Bacteria are commonly assumed to have high P content, low biomass C:P and N:P ratios, and inflexible stoichiometry. Here, we show that bacterial assemblages from lakes exhibit unprecedented flexibility in their P content (3% to less than 0.01% of dry mass) a ...[more]
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