Variations of microbial communities and substrate regimes in the eastern Fram Strait between summer and fall

Seasonal variations in day length and temperature, in combination with dynamic factors such as advection from the North Atlantic, influence primary production and the microbial loop in the Fram Strait. Here, we investigated the seasonal variability of biopolymers, microbial abundance, and microbial...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental Microbiology
Main Authors: von Jackowski, Anabel, Becker, Kevin W., Wietz, Matthias, Bienhold, Christina, Zäncker, Birthe, Nöthig, Eva‐Maria, Engel, Anja
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2022
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Online Access:https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/56294/
https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/56294/13/Environmental_Microbiology_2022_Jackowski.pdf
https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.16036
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Summary:Seasonal variations in day length and temperature, in combination with dynamic factors such as advection from the North Atlantic, influence primary production and the microbial loop in the Fram Strait. Here, we investigated the seasonal variability of biopolymers, microbial abundance, and microbial composition within the upper 100 m during summer and fall. Flow cytometry revealed a shift in the autotrophic community from picoeukaryotes dominating in summer to a 34-fold increase of Synechococcus by fall. Furthermore, a significant decline in biopolymers concentrations covaried with increasing microbial diversity based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing along with a community shift towards fewer polymer-degrading genera in fall. The seasonal succession in the biopolymer pool and microbes indicates distinct metabolic regimes, with a higher relative abundance of polysaccharide-degrading genera in summer and a higher relative abundance of common taxa in fall. The parallel analysis of DOM and microbial diversity provides an important baseline for microbe-substrate relationships over the seasonal cycle in the Arctic Ocean.