M. Montserrat Sala

Trends in Ostreopsis proliferation along the Northern Mediterranean coasts

Harmful benthic microalgae blooms represent an emergent phenomenon in temperate zones, causing health, ecological and economic concern. The main goal of this work was to compile records of Ostreopsis at large temporal and spatial scales, in order to study the relationship between cell abundances, the periodicity and intensity of the blooms and the role of sea water temperature in 14 Spanish, French, Monegasque and Italian sites located along the northern limits of the Mediterranean Sea. General trends were observed in the two considered basins: the north-western Mediterranean Sea, in which higher cell abundances were mostly recorded in mid-summer (end of July), and the northern Adriatic Sea where they occur in early fall (end of September). The sea-water temperature does not seem to be a primary driver, and the maximal abundance periods were site and year specific. Such results represent an important step in the understanding of harmful benthic microalgae blooms in temperate areas, and provide a good base for policy makers and managers in the attempt to monitor and forecast benthic harmful microalgae blooms.

Annual changes of bacterial mortality due to viruses and protists in an oligotrophic coastal environment (NW Mediterranean)

The impact of viruses and protists on bacterioplankton mortality was examined monthly during 2 years (May 2005-April 2007) in an oligotrophic coastal environment (NW Mediterranean Sea). We expected that in such type of system, (i) bacterial losses would be caused mainly by protists, and (ii) lysogeny would be an important type of virus-host interaction. During the study period, viruses and grazers together were responsible for 50.6 +/- 40.1% day(-1) of bacterial standing stock losses (BSS) and 59.7 +/- 44.0% day(-1) of bacterial production losses (BP). Over the first year (May 2005-April 2006), protists were the principal cause of bacterial mortality, removing 29.9 +/- 20.4% day(-1) of BSS and 33.9 +/- 24.3% day(-1) of BP, whereas viral lysis removed 13.5 +/- 17.0% day(-1) of BSS and 12.3 +/- 12.3% day(-1) of BP. During the second year (May 2006-April 2007), viruses caused comparable bacterial losses (29.2 +/- 14.8% day(-1) of BSS and 40.9 +/- 20.7% day(-1) of BP) to protists (28.6 +/- 25.5% day(-1) of BSS and 32.4 +/- 20.0% day(-1) of BP). In 37% of cases higher losses of BP due to viruses than due to protists were found. Lysogenic infection was detected in 11 of 24 samplings. Contrary to our expectations, lytic infections dominated over the two years, and viruses resulted to be a significant source of bacterial mortality in this oligotrophic site.

Management of Ostreopsis Blooms in Recreational waters along the Catalan Coast (NW Mediterranean Sea): Cooperation between a Research Project and a Monitoring Program

Abstract As shown in this report, the integration of a research project with a monitoring program improves the detection and management of Ostreopsis blooms in Catalonia. The research project benefits from information previously obtained from several localities by the monitoring program, which in turn profits from the specific findings and conclusions contributed by the research project.

Patterns of bacterial diversity in the marine planktonic particulate matter continuum

Depending on their relationship with the pelagic particulate matter, planktonic prokaryotes have traditionally been classified into two types of communities: free-living (FL) or attached (ATT) to particles, and are generally separated using only one pore-size filter in a differential filtration. Nonetheless, particulate matter in the oceans appears in a continuum of sizes. Here we separated this continuum into six discrete size-fractions, from 0.2 to 200 μm, and described the prokaryotes associated to each of them. Each size-fraction presented different bacterial communities, with a range of 23–42% of unique (OTUs) in each size-fraction, supporting the idea that they contained distinct types of particles. An increase in richness was observed from the smallest to the largest size-fractions, suggesting that increasingly larger particles contributed new niches. Our results show that a multiple size-fractionation provides a more exhaustive description of the bacterial diversity and community structure than the use of only one filter. In addition, and based on our results, we propose an alternative to the dichotomy of FL or ATT lifestyles, in which we differentiate the taxonomic groups with preference for the smaller fractions, those that do not show preferences for small or large fractions, and those that preferentially appear in larger fractions.

Microbially-Mediated Fluorescent Organic Matter Transformations in the Deep Ocean. Do the Chemical Precursors Matter?

The refractory nature of marine dissolved organic matter (DOM) increases while it travels from surface waters to the deep ocean. This resistant fraction is in part composed of fluorescent humic-like material, which is relatively difficult to metabolize by deep water prokaryotes, and it can also be generated by microbial activity. It has been recently argued that microbial production of new fluorescent DOM (FDOM) requires the presence of humic precursors in the surrounding environment. In order to experimentally test how the chemical quality of the available organic compounds influences the production of new FDOM, three experiments were performed with bathypelagic Atlantic waters. Microbial communities were incubated in three treatments which differed in the quality of the organic compounds added: i) glucose and acetate; ii) glucose, acetate, essential amino acids and humic acids; and iii) humic acids alone. The response of the prokaryotes and the production of FDOM were simultaneously monitored. Prokaryotic abundance was highest in treatments where labile compounds were added. The rate of humic-like fluorescence production scaled to prokaryotic abundance varied depending on the quality of the additions. The precursor compounds affected the generation of new humic-like FDOM, and the cell-specific production of this material was higher in the incubations amended with humic precursors. Furthermore, we observed that the protein-like fluorescence decreased only when fresh amino acids were added. These findings contribute to the understanding of FDOM variability in deep waters and provide valuable information for studies where fluorescent compounds are used in order to track water masses and/or microbial processes.

Comparison of production and degradation of organic matter at a littoral site of the prealpine Lake Constance

Abstract Biotic structures and processes of the comparatively large and deep Lake Constance are dominated by pelagic water bodies. Therefore, much more attention has thus far been paid to the carbon cycle of pelagic habitats as compared to littoral areas. Nevertheless, there is also an ongoing debate on the importance of littoral areas for the carbon cycle in this lake. Although actually existing data are certainly insufficient for a realistic carbon budget, investigations made during the past decade provide at least a rough basis for a first evaluation. Accordingly, littoral areas appear to contribute overproportionally (related to surface) both to production as well as to degradation of organic carbon in the lake. However, the relative effect seems to be more pronounced for heterotrophic activities, mostly due to intense degradation processes in littoral sediments. Related to volume, littoral water bodies exhibited similar or slightly higher microbial activities as compared to epilimnetic pelagic water bodies, while microbial abundances and activities observed for littoral sediments exceeded the corresponding overlying water layers by one to three orders of magnitude. As was confirmed by in situ measurements microbial oxygen consumption frequently exceeded photosynthetic oxygen production in the investigated littoral sites. Moreover, significant qualitative differences between water and sediment were found for the degradation potentials of xenobiotics as was exemplified for phenol and nitrilo-triacetic acid (NTA). Overall, a buffer function at the landwater interface may be ascribed to littoral areas due to which the large pelagic water bodies of the lake may become additionally protected against loads of undesired organic substances due to high littoral degradation capacities.

Horizontal and Vertical Distributions of Transparent Exopolymer Particles (TEP) in the NW Mediterranean Sea Are Linked to Chlorophyll a and O2 Variability

Transparent Exopolymer Particles (TEP) are relevant in particle and carbon fluxes in the ocean, and have economic impact in the desalination industry affecting reverse osmosis membrane fouling. However, general models of their occurrence and dynamics are not yet possible because of the poorly known co-variations with other physical and biological variables. Here, we describe TEP distributions in the NW Mediterranean Sea during late spring 2012, along perpendicular and parallel transects to the Catalan coast. The stations in the parallel transect were sampled at the surface, while the stations in the perpendicular transect were sampled from the surface to the bathypelagic, including the bottom nepheloid layers. We also followed the short-term TEP dynamics along a 2-day cycle in offshore waters. TEP concentrations in the area ranged from 4.9 to 122.8 and averaged 31.4 ± 12.0 μg XG eq L−1. The distribution of TEP measured in transects parallel to the Catalan Coast correlated those of chlorophyll a (Chla) in May but not in June, when higher TEP-values with respect to Chla were observed. TEP horizontal variability in epipelagic waters from the coast to the open sea also correlated to that of Chla, O2 (that we interpret as a proxy of primary production) and bacterial production (BP). In contrast, the TEP vertical distributions in epipelagic waters were uncoupled from those of Chla, as TEP maxima were located above the deep chlorophyll maxima. The vertical distribution of TEP in the epipelagic zone was correlated with O2 and BP, suggesting combined phytoplankton (through primary production) and bacterial (through carbon reprocessing) TEP sources. However, no clear temporal patterns arose during the 2-day cycle. In meso- and bathypelagic waters, where phytoplanktonic sources are minor, TEP concentrations (10.1 ± 4.3 μg XG eq l−1) were half those in the epipelagic, but we observed relative TEP increments coinciding with the presence of nepheloid layers. These TEP increases were not paralleled by increases in particulate organic carbon, indicating that TEP are likely to act as aggregating agents of the mostly inorganic particles present in these bottom nepheloid layers.

Eutrophication and acidification: Do they induce changes in the dissolved organic matter dynamics in the coastal Mediterranean Sea?

Two mesocosms experiments were conducted in winter 2010 and summer 2011 to examine how increased pCO2 and/or nutrient concentrations potentially perturbate dissolved organic matter dynamics in natural microbial assemblages. The fluorescence signals of protein- and humic-like compounds were used as a proxy for labile and non-labile material, respectively, while the evolution of bacterial populations, chlorophyll a (Chl a) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations were used as a proxy for biological activity. For both seasons, the presence of elevated pCO2 did not cause any significant change in the DOC dynamics (p-value<0.05). The conditions that showed the greatest changes in prokaryote abundances and Chl a content were those amended with nutrients, regardless of the change in pH. The temporal evolution of fluorophores and optical indices revealed that the degree of humification of the organic molecules and their molecular weight changed significantly in the nutrient-amended treatment. The generation of protein-like compounds was paired to increases in the prokaryote abundance, being higher in the nutrient-amended tanks than in the control. Different patterns in the magnitude and direction of the generation of humic-like molecules suggested that these changes depended on initial microbial populations and the availability of extra nutrient inputs. Based on our results, it is expected that in the future projected coastal scenarios the eutrophication processes will favor the transformations of labile and recalcitrant carbon regardless of changes in pCO2.

Spatial variability of marine bacterial and archaeal communities along the particulate matter continuum

Biotic and abiotic particles shape the microspatial architecture that defines the microbial aquatic habitat, being particles highly variable in size and quality along oceanic horizontal and vertical gradients. We analysed the prokaryotic (bacterial and archaeal) diversity and community composition present in six distinct particle size classes ranging from the pico‐ to the microscale (0.2 to 200 μm). Further, we studied their variations along oceanographic horizontal (from the coast to open oceanic waters) and vertical (from the ocean surface into the meso‐ and bathypelagic ocean) gradients. In general, prokaryotic community composition was more variable with depth than in the transition from the coast to the open ocean. Comparing the six size‐fractions, distinct prokaryotic communities were detected in each size‐fraction, and whereas bacteria were more diverse in the larger size‐fractions, archaea were more diverse in the smaller size‐fractions. Comparison of prokaryotic community composition among particle size‐fractions showed that most, but not all, taxonomic groups have a preference for a certain size‐fraction sustained with depth. Species sorting, or the presence of diverse ecotypes with distinct size‐fraction preferences, may explain why this trend is not conserved in all taxa.

Seasonal dynamics of transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) and their drivers in the coastal NW Mediterranean Sea

Transparent Exopolymer Particles (TEPs) are a subclass of organic particles with high impact in biogeochemical and ecological processes, such as the biological carbon pump, air-sea interactions, or the microbial loop. However, the complexity in production and consumption makes TEP dynamics hardly predictable, calling for the need of descriptive studies about the in situ dynamics of these particles. We followed monthly TEP dynamics and combined them with a dataset of environmental variables during three years in a coastal site of the oligotrophic North Western Mediterranean (Blanes Bay). TEP concentration, ranging from 11.3 to 289.1μgXGeqL-1 (average 81.7±11.7μgXGeqL-1), showed recurrent peaks in early summer (June-July). TEP were temporally disconnected from chlorophyll a maxima, that occurred in late winter and early spring (maxima 1.21μgL-1), but they were significantly related to the abundance of specific phytoplankton groups (diatoms and dinoflagellates) and also coincided with periods of low nutrient concentrations. The fraction of particulate organic carbon in the form of TEP (the TEP:POC and TEP:PM ratios) were also highest in early summer, indicating that TEP-enriched particles of low density accumulate in surface waters during stratified periods. We hypothesize that the accumulation of these particles affects the microbial food web by enhancing the activity of specific prokaryotic extracellular enzymes (esterase, β-glucosidase and alkaline phosphatase) and promoting the abundance of heterotrophic nanoflagellates.