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Microbial productivity in variable resource environments.

Jay T Lennon1, Kathryn L Cottingham

  • 1Department of Biological Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, USA. lennonja@msu.edu

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Aquatic bacteria productivity significantly increases with resource pulses, especially high-quality dissolved organic carbon (DOC). Resource timing, not just quality, dictates microbial responses and energy flow in aquatic ecosystems.

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Area of Science:

  • Ecology
  • Microbial ecology
  • Aquatic ecosystems

Background:

  • Resource supply dynamics (rate, timing, quality) control ecological processes.
  • Microbial activity changes, driven by resources, impact ecosystem functions like organic matter cycling.
  • Aquatic heterotrophic bacteria are key players in processing dissolved organic carbon (DOC).

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how aquatic heterotrophic bacteria respond to varying resource quality (low vs. high) and resource supply schedules (pulse vs. press).
  • To understand the mechanistic basis of microbial productivity under variable resource conditions using simulation modeling.
  • To assess the implications of resource variability for energy and material flow in aquatic food webs.

Main Methods:

  • Field experiments involving pulse and press additions of dissolved organic carbon (DOC).
  • Simulation modeling to explore bacterial physiology and DOC supply interactions.
  • Analysis of bacterial productivity (BP) and bacterial growth efficiency.

Main Results:

  • Pulse additions of DOC led to short-lived (<48h) peaks in bacterial productivity.
  • Cumulative BP was higher in pulse versus press treatments, with greater differences under high resource quality (2x for low, 5x for high).
  • Model results highlighted the critical role of refractory to labile carbon mobilization and dynamic bacterial growth efficiency in explaining observed patterns.

Conclusions:

  • Resource schedule (pulse vs. press) significantly influences bacterial productivity and energy transfer to higher trophic levels.
  • The impact of resource quality on bacterial productivity is conditional on the resource supply schedule.
  • Understanding microbial responses to resource variability is crucial for predicting ecosystem function changes due to environmental alterations like shifts in DOC fluxes.