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

Logue, Jurg B. and Stedmon, Colin A. and Kellerman, Anne M. and Nielsen, Nikoline J. and Andersson, Anders F. and Laudon, Hjalmar and Lindstrom, Eva S. and Kritzberg, Emma S. (2015) Experimental insights into the importance of aquatic bacterial community composition to the degradation of dissolved organic matter. ISME J. ISSN 1751-7370

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2015.131

Abstract

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.

Item Type: Article
Language: English
Future Forest Subject: Skogsbruk i klimatförändringens tid > Natur
Depositing User: Christer Enkvist
Date Deposited: 28 Feb 2017 14:25
Last Modified: 28 Feb 2017 14:25
URI: https://ffpdb.slu.se/id/eprint/3853

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