TY - JOUR A1 - Beisner, Beatrix E. A1 - Grossart, Hans-Peter A1 - Gasol, Josep M. T1 - A guide to methods for estimating phago-mixotrophy in nanophytoplankton JF - Journal of plankton research N2 - Growing attention to phytoplankton mixotrophy as a trophic strategy has led to significant revisions of traditional pelagic food web models and ecosystem functioning. Although some empirical estimates of mixotrophy do exist, a much broader set of in situ measurements are required to (i) identify which organisms are acting as mixotrophs in real time and to (ii) assess the contribution of their heterotrophy to biogeochemical cycling. Estimates are needed through time and across space to evaluate which environmental conditions or habitats favour mixotrophy: conditions still largely unknown. We review methodologies currently available to plankton ecologists to undertake estimates of plankton mixotrophy, in particular nanophytoplankton phago-mixotrophy. Methods are based largely on fluorescent or isotopic tracers, but also take advantage of genomics to identify phylotypes and function. We also suggest novel methods on the cusp of use for phago-mixotrophy assessment, including single-cell measurements improving our capacity to estimate mixotrophic activity and rates in wild plankton communities down to the single-cell level. Future methods will benefit from advances in nanotechnology, micromanipulation and microscopy combined with stable isotope and genomic methodologies. Improved estimates of mixotrophy will enable more reliable models to predict changes in food web structure and biogeochemical flows in a rapidly changing world. KW - flow cytometry KW - phagotrophy KW - phytoplankton KW - methods KW - fluorescence KW - microscopy KW - FISH KW - isotopic methods KW - phylotypes KW - carbon flows KW - gene sequencing Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/plankt/fbz008 SN - 0142-7873 SN - 1464-3774 VL - 41 IS - 2 SP - 77 EP - 89 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rojas-Jimenez, Keilor A1 - Rieck, Angelika A1 - Wurzbacher, Christian A1 - Jürgens, Klaus A1 - Labrenz, Matthias A1 - Grossart, Hans-Peter T1 - A Salinity Threshold Separating Fungal Communities in the Baltic Sea JF - Frontiers in Microbiology N2 - Salinity is a significant factor for structuring microbial communities, but little is known for aquatic fungi, particularly in the pelagic zone of brackish ecosystems. In this study, we explored the diversity and composition of fungal communities following a progressive salinity decline (from 34 to 3 PSU) along three transects of ca. 2000 km in the Baltic Sea, the world’s largest estuary. Based on 18S rRNA gene sequence analysis, we detected clear changes in fungal community composition along the salinity gradient and found significant differences in composition of fungal communities established above and below a critical value of 8 PSU. At salinities below this threshold, fungal communities resembled those from freshwater environments, with a greater abundance of Chytridiomycota, particularly of the orders Rhizophydiales, Lobulomycetales, and Gromochytriales. At salinities above 8 PSU, communities were more similar to those from marine environments and, depending on the season, were dominated by a strain of the LKM11 group (Cryptomycota) or by members of Ascomycota and Basidiomycota. Our results highlight salinity as an important environmental driver also for pelagic fungi, and thus should be taken into account to better understand fungal diversity and ecological function in the aquatic realm. KW - fungal diversity KW - baltic sea KW - salinity gradient KW - brackish waters KW - chytridiomycota KW - cryptomycota Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00680 SN - 1664-302X VL - 10 PB - Frontiers Media CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schorn, Sina A1 - Salman-Carvalho, Verena A1 - Littmann, Sten A1 - Ionescu, Danny A1 - Grossart, Hans-Peter A1 - Cypionka, Heribert T1 - Cell architecture of the giant sulfur bacterium achromatium oxaliferum BT - Extra-cytoplasmic localization of calcium carbonate bodies JF - FEMS Microbiology Ecology N2 - Achromatium oxaliferum is a large sulfur bacterium easily recognized by large intracellular calcium carbonate bodies. Although these bodies often fill major parts of the cells' volume, their role and specific intracellular location are unclear. In this study, we used various microscopy and staining techniques to identify the cell compartment harboring the calcium carbonate bodies. We observed that Achromatium cells often lost their calcium carbonate bodies, either naturally or induced by treatments with diluted acids, ethanol, sodium bicarbonate and UV radiation which did not visibly affect the overall shape and motility of the cells (except for UV radiation). The water-soluble fluorescent dye fluorescein easily diffused into empty cavities remaining after calcium carbonate loss. Membranes (stained with Nile Red) formed a network stretching throughout the cell and surrounding empty or filled calcium carbonate cavities. The cytoplasm (stained with FITC and SYBR Green for nucleic acids) appeared highly condensed and showed spots of dissolved Ca2+ (stained with Fura-2). From our observations, we conclude that the calcium carbonate bodies are located in the periplasm, in extra-cytoplasmic pockets of the cytoplasmic membrane and are thus kept separate from the cell's cytoplasm. This periplasmic localization of the carbonate bodies might explain their dynamic formation and release upon environmental changes. KW - sulfur-bacteria KW - calcium carbonate inclusions KW - extra-cytoplasmic pockets KW - calcite Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/femsec/fiz200 SN - 1574-6941 VL - 96 IS - 2 SP - 1 EP - 8 PB - Oxford University Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Numberger, Daniela A1 - Ganzert, Lars A1 - Zoccarato, Luca A1 - Mühldorfer, Kristin A1 - Sauer, Sascha A1 - Grossart, Hans-Peter A1 - Greenwood, Alex D. T1 - Characterization of bacterial communities in wastewater with enhanced taxonomic resolution by full-length 16S rRNA sequencing JF - Scientific reports N2 - Wastewater treatment is crucial to environmental hygiene in urban environments. However, wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) collect chemicals, organic matter, and microorganisms including pathogens and multi-resistant bacteria from various sources which may be potentially released into the environment via WWTP effluent. To better understand microbial dynamics in WWTPs, we characterized and compared the bacterial community of the inflow and effluent of a WWTP in Berlin, Germany using full-length 16S rRNA gene sequences, which allowed for species level determination in many cases and generally resolved bacterial taxa. Significantly distinct bacterial communities were identified in the wastewater inflow and effluent samples. Dominant operational taxonomic units (OTUs) varied both temporally and spatially. Disease associated bacterial groups were efficiently reduced in their relative abundance from the effluent by the WWTP treatment process, except for Legionella and Leptospira species which demonstrated an increase in relative proportion from inflow to effluent. This indicates that WWTPs, while effective against enteric bacteria, may enrich and release other potentially pathogenic bacteria into the environment. The taxonomic resolution of full-length 16S rRNA genes allows for improved characterization of potential pathogenic taxa and other harmful bacteria which is required to reliably assess health risk. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-46015-z SN - 2045-2322 VL - 9 PB - Nature Publ. Group CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Günthel, Marco A1 - Donis, Daphne A1 - Kirillin, Georgiy A1 - Ionescu, Danny A1 - Bizic, Mina A1 - McGinnis, Daniel F. A1 - Grossart, Hans-Peter A1 - Tang, Kam W. T1 - Contribution of oxic methane production to surface methane emission in lakes and its global importance JF - Nature Communications N2 - Recent discovery of oxic methane production in sea and lake waters, as well as wetlands, demands re-thinking of the global methane cycle and re-assessment of the contribution of oxic waters to atmospheric methane emission. Here we analysed system-wide sources and sinks of surface-water methane in a temperate lake. Using a mass balance analysis, we show that internal methane production in well-oxygenated surface water is an important source for surface-water methane during the stratified period. Combining our results and literature reports, oxic methane contribution to emission follows a predictive function of littoral sediment area and surface mixed layer volume. The contribution of oxic methane source(s) is predicted to increase with lake size, accounting for the majority (>50%) of surface methane emission for lakes with surface areas >1 km(2). Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13320-0 SN - 2041-1723 VL - 10 PB - Nature Publishing Group UK CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Tang, Kam W. A1 - Backhaus, Liv A1 - Riemann, Lasse A1 - Koski, Marja A1 - Grossart, Hans-Peter A1 - Munk, Peter A1 - Nielsen, Torkel Gissel T1 - Copepod carcasses in the subtropical convergence zone of the Sargasso Sea BT - implications for microbial community composition, system respiration and carbon flux JF - Journal of plankton research N2 - The oligotrophic subtropical gyre covers a vast area of the Atlantic Ocean. Decades of time-series monitoring have generated detailed temporal information about zooplankton species and abundances at fixed locations within the gyre, but their live/dead status is often omitted, especially in the dynamic subtropical convergence zone (STCZ) where the water column stratification pattern can change considerably across the front as warm and cold water masses converge. We conducted a detailed survey in the North Atlantic STCZ and showed that over 85% of the copepods were typically concentrated in the upper 200 m. Copepod carcasses were present in all samples and their proportional numerical abundances increased with depth, reaching up to 91% at 300-400 m. Overall, 14-19% of the copepods within the upper 200 m were carcasses. Shipboard experiments showed that during carcass decomposition, microbial respiration increased, and the bacterial community associated with the carcasses diverged from that in the ambient water. Combining field and experimental data, we estimated that decomposing copepod carcasses constitute a negligible oxygen sink in the STCZ, but sinking carcasses may represent an overlooked portion of the passive carbon sinking flux and should be incorporated in future studies of carbon flux in this area. KW - Sargasso Sea KW - subtropical convergence zone KW - zooplankton KW - carcasses KW - carbon sinking flux Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/plankt/fbz038 SN - 0142-7873 SN - 1464-3774 VL - 41 IS - 4 SP - 549 EP - 560 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - GEN A1 - Numberger, Daniela A1 - Dreier, Carola A1 - Vullioud, Colin A1 - Gabriel, Guelsah A1 - Greenwood, Alex D. A1 - Grossart, Hans-Peter T1 - Correction: Recovery of influenza A viruses from lake water and sediments by experimental inoculation (vol 14, e0216880, 2019) T2 - PLoS one Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0218882 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 14 IS - 6 PB - PLoS CY - San Fransisco ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kolmakova, Olesya V. A1 - Gladyshev, Michail I. A1 - Fonvielle, Jeremy Andre A1 - Ganzert, Lars A1 - Hornick, Thomas A1 - Grossart, Hans-Peter T1 - Effects of zooplankton carcasses degradation on freshwater bacterial community composition and implications for carbon cycling JF - Environmental microbiology N2 - Non-predatory mortality of zooplankton provides an abundant, yet, little studied source of high quality labile organic matter (LOM) in aquatic ecosystems. Using laboratory microcosms, we followed the decomposition of organic carbon of fresh C-13-labelled Daphnia carcasses by natural bacterioplankton. The experimental setup comprised blank microcosms, that is, artificial lake water without any organic matter additions (B), and microcosms either amended with natural humic matter (H), fresh Daphnia carcasses (D) or both, that is, humic matter and Daphnia carcasses (HD). Most of the carcass carbon was consumed and respired by the bacterial community within 15 days of incubation. A shift in the bacterial community composition shaped by labile carcass carbon and by humic matter was observed. Nevertheless, we did not observe a quantitative change in humic matter degradation by heterotrophic bacteria in the presence of LOM derived from carcasses. However, carcasses were the main factor driving the bacterial community composition suggesting that the presence of large quantities of dead zooplankton might affect the carbon cycling in aquatic ecosystems. Our results imply that organic matter derived from zooplankton carcasses is efficiently remineralized by a highly specific bacterial community, but does not interfere with the bacterial turnover of more refractory humic matter. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.14418 SN - 1462-2912 SN - 1462-2920 VL - 21 IS - 1 SP - 34 EP - 49 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lundgreen, Regitze B. C. A1 - Jaspers, Cornelia A1 - Traving, Sachia J. A1 - Ayala, Daniel J. A1 - Lombard, Fabien A1 - Grossart, Hans-Peter A1 - Nielsen, Torkel G. A1 - Munk, Peter A1 - Riemann, Lasse T1 - Eukaryotic and cyanobacterial communities associated with marine snow particles in the oligotrophic Sargasso Sea JF - Scientific reports N2 - Marine snow aggregates represent heterogeneous agglomerates of dead and living organic matter. Composition is decisive for their sinking rates, and thereby for carbon flux to the deep sea. For oligotrophic oceans, information on aggregate composition is particularly sparse. To address this, the taxonomic composition of aggregates collected from the subtropical and oligotrophic Sargasso Sea (Atlantic Ocean) was characterized by 16S and 18S rRNA gene sequencing. Taxonomy assignment was aided by a collection of the contemporary plankton community consisting of 75 morphologically and genetically identified plankton specimens. The diverse rRNA gene reads of marine snow aggregates, not considering Trichodesmium puffs, were dominated by copepods (52%), cnidarians (21%), radiolarians (11%), and alveolates (8%), with sporadic contributions by cyanobacteria, suggesting a different aggregate composition than in eutrophic regions. Composition linked significantly with sampling location but not to any measured environmental parameters or plankton biomass composition. Nevertheless, indicator and network analyses identified key roles of a few rare taxa. This points to complex regulation of aggregate composition, conceivably affected by the environment and plankton characteristics. The extent to which this has implications for particle densities, and consequently for sinking rates and carbon sequestration in oligotrophic waters, needs further interrogation. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-45146-7 SN - 2045-2322 VL - 9 PB - Nature Publ. Group CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Steger, Kristin A1 - Kim, Amy Taeyen A1 - Ganzert, Lars A1 - Grossart, Hans-Peter A1 - Smart, David R. T1 - Floodplain soil and its bacterial composition are strongly affected by depth JF - FEMS microbiology ecology N2 - We studied bacterial abundance and community structure of five soil cores using high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. Shifts in the soil bacterial composition were more pronounced within a vertical profile than across the landscape. Soil organic carbon (SOC) and nitrogen (N) concentrations decreased exponentially with soil depth and revealed a buried carbon-rich horizon between 0.8 and 1.3 m across all soil cores. This buried horizon was phylogenetically similar to its surrounding subsoils supporting the idea that the type of carbon, not necessarily the amount of carbon was driving the apparent similarities. In contrast to other studies, Nitrospirae was one of our major phyla with relatively high abundances throughout the soil profile except for the surface soil. Although depth is the major driver shaping soil bacterial community structure, positive correlations with SOC and N concentrations, however, were revealed with the bacterial abundance of Acidobacteria, one of the major, and Gemmatimonadetes, one of the minor phyla in our study. Our study showed that bacterial diversity in soils below 2.0 m can be still as high if not higher than in the above laying subsurface soil suggesting that various bacteria throughout the soil profile influence major biogeochemical processes in floodplain soils. KW - 16S rRNA gene sequencing KW - alluvial soil KW - buried horizon KW - Nitrospirae KW - soil bacterial diversity KW - SOC Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/femsec/fiz014 SN - 0168-6496 SN - 1574-6941 VL - 95 IS - 3 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER -