resource quantity affects benthic microbial community structure and growth efficiency in a temperate intertidal mudflat资源数量影响底栖微生物群落结构和经济增长效率在一个温和的潮间带泥滩.pdfVIP

Resource Quantity Affects Benthic Microbial Community Structure and Growth Efficiency in a Temperate Intertidal Mudflat 1 2 3 Daniel J. Mayor *, Barry Thornton , Alain F. Zuur 1 Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Oceanlab, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom, 2 The James Hutton Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen, United Kingdom, 3 Highland Statistics Ltd., Newburgh, Aberdeenshire, United Kingdom Abstract Estuaries cover ,1% of marine habitats, but the carbon dioxide (CO ) effluxes from these net heterotrophic systems 2 contribute significantly to the global carbon cycle. Anthropogenic eutrophication of estuarine waterways increases the supply of labile substrates to the underlying sediments. How such changes affect the form and functioning of the resident microbial communities remains unclear. We employed a carbon-13 pulse-chase experiment to investigate how a temperate estuarine benthic microbial community at 6.5uC responded to additions of marine diatom-derived organic carbon equivalent to 4.16, 41.60 and 416.00 mmol C m22. The quantities of carbon mineralized and incorporated into bacterial biomass both increased significantly, albeit differentially, with resource supply. This resulted in bacterial growth efficiency increasing from 0.40±0.02 to 0.55±0.04 as substrates became more available. The proportions of diatom-derived carbon incorporated into individual microbial membrane fatty acids also varied with resource supply. Future increases in labile organic substrate supply have the potential to increase both the proportion of organic carbon being retained within the benthi