Description: Marine yeasts play an important role in biodegradation and nutrient cycling and are often associated with marine flora and fauna. They show maximum growth at pH levels lower than present-day seawater pH. Thus, contrary to many other marine organisms, they may actually profit from ocean acidification. Hence, we conducted a microcosm study, incubating natural seawater from the North Sea at present-day pH (8.10) and two near-future pH levels (7.81 and 7.67). Yeasts were isolated from the initial seawater sample and after 2 and 4 weeks of incubation. Isolates were classified by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) and representative isolates were identified by partial sequencing of the large subunit rRNA gene. From the initial seawater sample, we predominantly isolated a yeast-like filamentous fungus related to Aureobasidium pullulans, Cryptococcus sp., Candida sake, and various cold-adapted yeasts. After incubation, we found more different yeast species at near-future pH levels than at present-day pH. Yeasts reacting to low pH were related to Leucosporidium scottii, Rhodotorula mucilaginosa, Cryptococcus sp., and Debaryomyces hansenii. Our results suggest that these yeasts will benefit from seawater pH reductions and give a first indication that the importance of yeasts will increase in a more acidic ocean.

Description: Marine microbial biogeography has been studied intensively; however few studies address community variation across temporal and spatial scales simultaneously so far. Here we present a yearlong study investigating the dynamics of the free-living and particle-attached bacterioplankton community across a 100 km transect in the German Bight reaching from the Elbe estuary towards the open North Sea. Community composition was assessed using automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis and linked to environmental parameters applying multivariate statistical techniques. Results suggest that the spatial variation of the bacterioplankton community is defined by hydrographic current conditions, which separate the inner German Bight from the open North Sea and lead to pronounced differences in the coastal and offshore bacterioplankton community. However this spatial variation is overwhelmed by a strong temporal variation which is triggered by temperature as the main driving force throughout the whole transect. Variation in the free-living community was predominantly driven by temperature, whereas the particle-attached community exhibited stronger spatial variation patterns.

Description: The Lena River is one of the largest Russian rivers draining into the Laptev Sea. The predicted increases in global temperatures are expected to cause the permafrost areas surrounding the Lena Delta to melt at increasing rates. This melting will result in high amounts of methane reaching the waters of the Lena and the adjacent Laptev Sea. The only biological sink that can lower methane concentrations within this system is methane oxidation by methanotrophic bacteria. However, the polar estuary of the Lena River, due to its strong fluctuations in salinity and temperature, is a challenging environment for bacteria. We determined the activity and abundance of aerobic methanotrophic bacteria by a tracer method and by the quantitative polymerase chain reaction. We described the methanotrophic population with a molecular fingerprinting method (monooxygenase intergenic spacer analysis), as well as the methane distribution (via a headspace method) and other abiotic parameters, in the Lena Delta in September 2013. The median methane concentrations were 22 nmol L−1 for riverine water (salinity (S)  〈 5), 19 nmol L−1 for mixed water (5 〈 S 〈 20) and 28 nmol L−1 for polar water (S 〉 20). The Lena River was not the source of methane in surface water, and the methane concentrations of the bottom water were mainly influenced by the methane concentration in surface sediments. However, the bacterial populations of the riverine and polar waters showed similar methane oxidation rates (0.419 and 0.400 nmol L−1 d−1), despite a higher relative abundance of methanotrophs and a higher estimated diversity in the riverine water than in the polar water. The methane turnover times ranged from 167 days in mixed water and 91 days in riverine water to only 36 days in polar water. The environmental parameters influencing the methane oxidation rate and the methanotrophic population also differed between the water masses. We postulate the presence of a riverine methanotrophic population that is limited by sub-optimal temperatures and substrate concentrations and a polar methanotrophic population that is well adapted to the cold and methane-poor polar environment but limited by a lack of nitrogen. The diffusive methane flux into the atmosphere ranged from 4 to 163 µmol m2 d−1 (median 24). The diffusive methane flux accounted for a loss of 8 % of the total methane inventory of the investigated area, whereas the methanotrophic bacteria consumed only 1 % of this methane inventory. Our results underscore the importance of measuring the methane oxidation activities in polar estuaries, and they indicate a population-level differentiation between riverine and polar water methanotrophs.

Description: Copepods can be associated with different kinds and different numbers of bacteria. This was already shown in the past with culture-dependent microbial methods or microscopy and more recently by using molecular tools. In our present study, we investigated the bacterial community of four frequently occurring copepod species, Acartia sp., Temora longicornis, Centropages sp. and Calanus helgolandicus from Helgoland Roads (North Sea) over a period of two years using DGGE (denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis) and subsequent sequencing of 16S-rDNA fragments. To complement the PCR-DGGE analyses, clone libraries of copepod samples from June 2007 and 208 were generated. Based on the DGGE banding patterns of the two years survey, we found no significant differences between the communities of distinct copepod species, nor did we find any seasonality. Overall, we identified 67 phylotypes (〉 97% similarity) falling into the bacterial phyla of Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes and Proteobacteria. The most abundant phylotypes were affiliated to the Alphaproteobacteria. In comparison of PCR-DGGE and clone libraries, phylotypes of the Gammaproteobacteria dominated the clone libraries, whereas Alphaproteobacteria were most abundant in the PCR-DGGE analyses

Description: The increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) results in acidification of the oceans, expected to lead to the fastest drop in ocean pH in the last 300 million years, if anthropogenic emissions are continued at present rate. Due to higher solubility of gases in cold waters and increased exposure to the atmosphere by decreasing ice cover, the Arctic Ocean will be among the areas most strongly affected by ocean acidification. Yet, the response of the plankton community of high latitudes to ocean acidification has not been studied so far. This work is part of the Arctic campaign of the European Project on Ocean Acidification (EPOCA) in 2010, employing 9 in situ mesocosms of about 45 000 l each to simulate ocean acidification in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard (78°56.2' N 11°53.6' E). In the present study, we investigated effects of elevated CO2 on the composition and richness of particle attached (PA; 〉3 μm) and free living (FL; 〈3 μm 〉0.2 μm) bacterial communities by Automated Ribosomal Intergenic Spacer Analysis (ARISA) in 6 of the mesocosms and the surrounding fjord, ranging from 185 to 1050 initial μatm pCO2. ARISA was able to resolve about 20–30 bacterial band-classes per sample and allowed for a detailed investigation of the explicit richness. Both, the PA and the FL bacterioplankton community exhibited a strong temporal development, which was driven mainly by temperature and phytoplankton development. In response to the breakdown of a picophytoplankton bloom (phase 3 of the experiment), number of ARISA-band classes in the PA-community were reduced at low and medium CO2 (∼180–600 μatm) by about 25%, while it was more or less stable at high CO2 (∼ 650–800 μatm). We hypothesise that enhanced viral lysis and enhanced availability of organic substrates at high CO2 resulted in a more diverse PA-bacterial community in the post-bloom phase. Despite lower cell numbers and extracellular enzyme activities in the post-bloom phase, bacterial protein production was enhanced in high CO2-treatments, suggesting a positive effect of community richness on this function and on carbon cycling by bacteria.