Bacterial growth in the cold: evidence for an enhanced substrate requirement

Growth responses and biovolume changes for four facultatively psychrophilic bacterial isolates from Conception Bay, Newfoundland, and the Arctic Ocean were examined at temperatures from - 1.5 to 35 degrees C, with substrate concentrations of 0.15, 1.5, and 1,500 mg of proteose peptone-yeast extract per liter. For two cultures, growth in 0.1, 1.0, and 1,000 mg of proline per liter was also examined. At 10 to 15 degrees C and above, growth rates showed no marked effect of substrate concentration, while at - 1.5 and 0 degrees C, there was an increasing requirement for organic nutrients, with generation times in low-nutrient media that were two to three times longer than in high-nutrient media. Biovolume showed a clear dependence on substrate concentration and quality; the largest cells were in the highest-nutrient media. Biovolume was also affected by temperature; the largest cells were found at the lowest temperatures. These data have implications for both food web structure and carbon flow in cold waters and for the effects of global climate change, since the change in growth rate is most dramatic at the lowest temperatures.