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...
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ftcdlib:oai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt8bs116nd 2023-09-05T13:15:07+02:00 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 Buttigieg, Pier L Rapp, Josephine Z Krumpen, Thomas Zehr, Jonathan P Boetius, Antje 1884 2016-01-01 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8bs116nd unknown eScholarship, University of California qt8bs116nd https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8bs116nd public Frontiers in Microbiology, vol 7, iss NOV Life Below Water nitrogenfixation nifH Arctic non-cyanobacterial diazotrophs sea ice bacterial diversity nitrogen fixation Environmental Science and Management Soil Sciences Microbiology article 2016 ftcdlib 2023-08-21T18:03:14Z 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 toward 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 77°N. 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 University of California: eScholarship Arctic Antarctic Arctic Ocean Laptev Sea |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of California: eScholarship |
op_collection_id |
ftcdlib |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Life Below Water nitrogenfixation nifH Arctic non-cyanobacterial diazotrophs sea ice bacterial diversity nitrogen fixation Environmental Science and Management Soil Sciences Microbiology |
spellingShingle |
Life Below Water nitrogenfixation nifH Arctic non-cyanobacterial diazotrophs sea ice bacterial diversity nitrogen fixation Environmental Science and Management Soil Sciences Microbiology Fernández-Méndez, Mar Turk-Kubo, Kendra A Buttigieg, Pier L Rapp, Josephine Z 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 |
topic_facet |
Life Below Water nitrogenfixation nifH Arctic non-cyanobacterial diazotrophs sea ice bacterial diversity nitrogen fixation Environmental Science and Management Soil Sciences Microbiology |
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 toward 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 77°N. 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 Buttigieg, Pier L Rapp, Josephine Z Krumpen, Thomas Zehr, Jonathan P Boetius, Antje |
author_facet |
Fernández-Méndez, Mar Turk-Kubo, Kendra A Buttigieg, Pier L Rapp, Josephine Z 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 |
publisher |
eScholarship, University of California |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8bs116nd |
op_coverage |
1884 |
geographic |
Arctic Antarctic Arctic Ocean Laptev Sea |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Antarctic Arctic Ocean Laptev Sea |
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 |
Frontiers in Microbiology, vol 7, iss NOV |
op_relation |
qt8bs116nd https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8bs116nd |
op_rights |
public |
_version_ |
1776196955081277440 |