Diazotroph diversity in the sea ice, melt ponds and surface waters of the Eurasian Basin of the Central Arctic Ocean
The Eurasian basin of the Central Arctic Ocean is nitrogen limited, but little is known about the presence and role of nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Recent studies have indicated the occurrence of diazotrophs in Arctic coastal waters potentially of riverine origin. Here, we investigated the presence of...
Published in: | Frontiers in Microbiology |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | unknown |
Published: |
2016
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/42175/ https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/42175/1/fmicb-07-01884.pdf http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmicb.2016.01884/abstract https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.48934 https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.48934.d001 |
id |
ftawi:oai:epic.awi.de:42175 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftawi:oai:epic.awi.de:42175 2024-09-15T17:41:09+00:00 Diazotroph diversity in the sea ice, melt ponds and surface waters of the Eurasian Basin of the Central Arctic Ocean Fernández-Méndez, Mar Turk-Kubo, Kendra A. Rapp, Josephine Z. Buttigieg, Pier Luigi Krumpen, Thomas Zehr, Jonathan P. Boetius, Antje 2016-11 application/pdf https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/42175/ https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/42175/1/fmicb-07-01884.pdf http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmicb.2016.01884/abstract https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.48934 https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.48934.d001 unknown https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/42175/1/fmicb-07-01884.pdf https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.48934.d001 Fernández-Méndez, M. , Turk-Kubo, K. A. , Rapp, J. Z. orcid:0000-0001-5812-6405 , Buttigieg, P. L. , Krumpen, T. orcid:0000-0001-6234-8756 , Zehr, J. P. and Boetius, A. orcid:0000-0003-2117-4176 (2016) Diazotroph diversity in the sea ice, melt ponds and surface waters of the Eurasian Basin of the Central Arctic Ocean , Frontiers in Microbiology, 7 , p. 1884 . doi:10.3389/fmicb.2016.01884 <https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2016.01884> , hdl:10013/epic.48934 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess EPIC3Frontiers in Microbiology, 7, pp. 1884 Article peerRev info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2016 ftawi https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2016.01884 2024-06-24T04:15:36Z The Eurasian basin of the Central Arctic Ocean is nitrogen limited, but little is known about the presence and role of nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Recent studies have indicated the occurrence of diazotrophs in Arctic coastal waters potentially of riverine origin. Here, we investigated the presence of diazotrophs in ice and surface waters of the Central Arctic Ocean in the summer of 2012. We identified diverse communities of putative diazotrophs through targeted analysis of the nifH gene, which encodes the iron protein of the nitrogenase enzyme. We amplified 529 nifH sequences from 26 samples of Arctic melt ponds, sea ice and surface waters. These sequences resolved into 43 clusters at 92% amino acid sequence identity, most of which were non-cyanobacterial phylotypes from sea ice and water samples. One cyanobacterial phylotype related to Nodularia sp. was retrieved from sea ice, suggesting that this important functional group is rare in the Central Arctic Ocean. The diazotrophic community in sea-ice environments appear distinct from other cold-adapted diazotrophic communities, such as those present in the coastal Canadian Arctic, the Arctic tundra and glacial Antarctic lakes. Molecular fingerprinting of nifH and the intergenic spacer region of the rRNA operon revealed differences between the communities from river-influenced Laptev Sea waters and those from ice-related environments pointing towards a marine origin for sea-ice diazotrophs. Our results provide the first record of diazotrophs in the Central Arctic and suggest that microbial nitrogen fixation may occur north of 77ºN. To assess the significance of nitrogen fixation for the nitrogen budget of the Arctic Ocean and to identify the active nitrogen fixers, further biogeochemical and molecular biological studies are needed. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Arctic Arctic Ocean laptev Laptev Sea Sea ice Tundra Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar- and Marine Research (AWI): ePIC (electronic Publication Information Center) Frontiers in Microbiology 7 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar- and Marine Research (AWI): ePIC (electronic Publication Information Center) |
op_collection_id |
ftawi |
language |
unknown |
description |
The Eurasian basin of the Central Arctic Ocean is nitrogen limited, but little is known about the presence and role of nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Recent studies have indicated the occurrence of diazotrophs in Arctic coastal waters potentially of riverine origin. Here, we investigated the presence of diazotrophs in ice and surface waters of the Central Arctic Ocean in the summer of 2012. We identified diverse communities of putative diazotrophs through targeted analysis of the nifH gene, which encodes the iron protein of the nitrogenase enzyme. We amplified 529 nifH sequences from 26 samples of Arctic melt ponds, sea ice and surface waters. These sequences resolved into 43 clusters at 92% amino acid sequence identity, most of which were non-cyanobacterial phylotypes from sea ice and water samples. One cyanobacterial phylotype related to Nodularia sp. was retrieved from sea ice, suggesting that this important functional group is rare in the Central Arctic Ocean. The diazotrophic community in sea-ice environments appear distinct from other cold-adapted diazotrophic communities, such as those present in the coastal Canadian Arctic, the Arctic tundra and glacial Antarctic lakes. Molecular fingerprinting of nifH and the intergenic spacer region of the rRNA operon revealed differences between the communities from river-influenced Laptev Sea waters and those from ice-related environments pointing towards a marine origin for sea-ice diazotrophs. Our results provide the first record of diazotrophs in the Central Arctic and suggest that microbial nitrogen fixation may occur north of 77ºN. To assess the significance of nitrogen fixation for the nitrogen budget of the Arctic Ocean and to identify the active nitrogen fixers, further biogeochemical and molecular biological studies are needed. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Fernández-Méndez, Mar Turk-Kubo, Kendra A. Rapp, Josephine Z. Buttigieg, Pier Luigi Krumpen, Thomas Zehr, Jonathan P. Boetius, Antje |
spellingShingle |
Fernández-Méndez, Mar Turk-Kubo, Kendra A. Rapp, Josephine Z. Buttigieg, Pier Luigi Krumpen, Thomas Zehr, Jonathan P. Boetius, Antje Diazotroph diversity in the sea ice, melt ponds and surface waters of the Eurasian Basin of the Central Arctic Ocean |
author_facet |
Fernández-Méndez, Mar Turk-Kubo, Kendra A. Rapp, Josephine Z. Buttigieg, Pier Luigi Krumpen, Thomas Zehr, Jonathan P. Boetius, Antje |
author_sort |
Fernández-Méndez, Mar |
title |
Diazotroph diversity in the sea ice, melt ponds and surface waters of the Eurasian Basin of the Central Arctic Ocean |
title_short |
Diazotroph diversity in the sea ice, melt ponds and surface waters of the Eurasian Basin of the Central Arctic Ocean |
title_full |
Diazotroph diversity in the sea ice, melt ponds and surface waters of the Eurasian Basin of the Central Arctic Ocean |
title_fullStr |
Diazotroph diversity in the sea ice, melt ponds and surface waters of the Eurasian Basin of the Central Arctic Ocean |
title_full_unstemmed |
Diazotroph diversity in the sea ice, melt ponds and surface waters of the Eurasian Basin of the Central Arctic Ocean |
title_sort |
diazotroph diversity in the sea ice, melt ponds and surface waters of the eurasian basin of the central arctic ocean |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/42175/ https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/42175/1/fmicb-07-01884.pdf http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmicb.2016.01884/abstract https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.48934 https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.48934.d001 |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Arctic Arctic Ocean laptev Laptev Sea Sea ice Tundra |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Arctic Arctic Ocean laptev Laptev Sea Sea ice Tundra |
op_source |
EPIC3Frontiers in Microbiology, 7, pp. 1884 |
op_relation |
https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/42175/1/fmicb-07-01884.pdf https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.48934.d001 Fernández-Méndez, M. , Turk-Kubo, K. A. , Rapp, J. Z. orcid:0000-0001-5812-6405 , Buttigieg, P. L. , Krumpen, T. orcid:0000-0001-6234-8756 , Zehr, J. P. and Boetius, A. orcid:0000-0003-2117-4176 (2016) Diazotroph diversity in the sea ice, melt ponds and surface waters of the Eurasian Basin of the Central Arctic Ocean , Frontiers in Microbiology, 7 , p. 1884 . doi:10.3389/fmicb.2016.01884 <https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2016.01884> , hdl:10013/epic.48934 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2016.01884 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Microbiology |
container_volume |
7 |
_version_ |
1810487270568886272 |