Latitudinal trends of Crenarchaeota and Bacteria in the meso- and bathypelagic water masses of the Eastern North Atlantic
- Author(s)
- Marta M. Varela, Hendrik M. Van Aken, Eva Sintes, Gerhard J. Herndl
- Abstract
The distribution and activity of the bulk picoplankton community and, using microautoradiography combined with catalysed reported deposition fluorescence in situ hybridization (MICRO-CARD-FISH), of the major prokaryotic groups (Bacteria, marine Crenarchaeota Group I and marine Euryarchaeota Group II) were determined in the water masses of the subtropical North Atlantic. The bacterial contribution to total picoplankton abundance was fairly constant, comprising ∼50% of DAPI-stainable cells. Marine Euryarchaeota Group II accounted always for < 5% of DAPI-stainable cells. The percentage of total picoplankton identified as marine Crenarchaeota Group I was ∼5% in subsurface waters (100 m depth) and between 10% and 20% in the oxygen minimum layer (250-500 m) and deep waters [North East Atlantic Deep Water (NEADW) and Lower Deep Water (LDW), 2750-4800 m depth]. Single-cell activity, determined via a quantitative MICRO-CARD-FISH approach and taking only substrate-positive cells into account, ranged from 0.05 to 0.5 amol d-aspartic acid (Asp) cell-1 day -1 and 0.1-2 amol l-Asp cell-1 day-1, slightly decreasing with depth. In contrast, the d-Asp:l-Asp cell-specific uptake ratio increased with depth. By combining data reported previously using the same method as applied here and data reported here, we found a decreasing relative abundance of marine Crenarchaeota Group I throughout the meso- and bathypelagic water column from 65°N to 5°N in the eastern basin of the North Atlantic. Thus, the relative contribution of marine Crenarchaeota Group I to deep-water prokaryotic communities might be more variable than previous studies have suggested. This apparent variability in the contribution of marine Crenarchaeota Group I to total picoplankton abundance might be related to successions and ageing of deep-water masses in the large-scale meridional ocean circulation and possibly, the appearance of crenarchaeotal clusters other than the marine Crenarchaeota Group I in the (sub)tropical North Atlantic.
- Organisation(s)
- External organisation(s)
- Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research
- Journal
- Environmental Microbiology
- Volume
- 10
- Pages
- 110-124
- No. of pages
- 15
- ISSN
- 1462-2912
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1462-2920.2007.01437.x
- Publication date
- 01-2008
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 106021 Marine biology
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Microbiology, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
- Sustainable Development Goals
- SDG 14 - Life Below Water
- Portal url
- https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/latitudinal-trends-of-crenarchaeota-and-bacteria-in-the-meso-and-bathypelagic-water-masses-of-the-eastern-north-atlantic(39af4b81-036d-4f32-b2b2-49dbbd9a4422).html