Community Size and Metabolic Rates of Psychrophilic Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria in Arctic Marine Sediments

The numbers of sulfate reducers in two Arctic sediments with in situ temperatures of 2.6 and −1.7°C were determined. Most-probable-number counts were higher at 10°C than at 20°C, indicating the predominance of a psychrophilic community. Mean specific sulfate reduction rates of 19 isolated psychrophi...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Knoblauch, Christian, Jørgensen, Bo Barker, Harder, Jens
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: American Society for Microbiology 1999
Subjects:
General Microbial Ecology
Arctic
Online Access:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC99766
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10473441
Description
Summary:The numbers of sulfate reducers in two Arctic sediments with in situ temperatures of 2.6 and −1.7°C were determined. Most-probable-number counts were higher at 10°C than at 20°C, indicating the predominance of a psychrophilic community. Mean specific sulfate reduction rates of 19 isolated psychrophiles were compared to corresponding rates of 9 marine, mesophilic sulfate-reducing bacteria. The results indicate that, as a physiological adaptation to the permanently cold Arctic environment, psychrophilic sulfate reducers have considerably higher specific metabolic rates than their mesophilic counterparts at similarly low temperatures.

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