Abstract
The heterotrophic bacterial community of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea is believed to be limited by phosphorus (P) availability. This observation assumes that all bacterial groups are equally limited, something that has not been hitherto examined. To test this hypothesis, we performed nutrient addition experiments and investigated the response of probe-identified groups using microautoradiography combined with catalyzed reporter deposition fluorescence in situ hybridization. Our results show contrasting responses between the bacterial groups, with Gammaproteobacteria being the group more affected by P availability. The Roseobacter clade was likely colimited by P and nitrogen (N), whereas Bacteroidetes by P, N and organic carbon (C). In contrast, SAR11 cells were active regardless of the nutrient concentration. These results indicate that there is high heterogeneity in the nutrient limitation of the different components of the bacterioplankton community.
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Acknowledgements
This experiment in the Cretacosmos facility was arranged in co-operation by project Nutritunnel financed by the Research Council of Norway and the MESOAQUA network (FP7/2007-2013, grant agreement no. 228224). We thank Frede T Thingstad and Paraskevi Pitta for inviting MS to participate in this experiment and Runar Thyrhaug for performing the heterotrophic bacterial activity measurements. Processing of the samples was supported by the grants FOSMICRO (CTM2009-07679-E) and STORM (CTM2009-09352/MAR), funded by the former Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. MS was supported by a ‘Juan de la Cierva’ award.
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This paper is dedicated to the memory of Runar Thyrhaug who passed away shortly after the experiment.
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Sebastián, M., Gasol, J. Heterogeneity in the nutrient limitation of different bacterioplankton groups in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. ISME J 7, 1665–1668 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2013.42
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2013.42
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