News
Prokaryotic community dynamics and nitrogen-cycling genes in an oxygen-deficient upwelling system during La Niña and El Niño conditions
Abstract.
"Dissolved oxygen regulates microbial distribution and nitrogen cycling and, therefore, ocean productivity and Earth's climate. To date, the assembly of microbial communities in relation to oceanographic changes due to El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) remains poorly understood in oxygen minimum zones (OMZ). The Mexican Pacific upwelling system supports high productivity and a permanent OMZ. Here, the spatiotemporal distribution of the prokaryotic community and nitrogen-cycling genes was investigated along a repeated transect subjected to varying oceanographic conditions associated with La Niña in 2018 and El Niño in 2019. [...]".
Source: Wiley Online Library
Authors: Silvia Pajares et al.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.16362
When microbiologists plunge into the ocean
Microbiologists stake their claim: assessing climate change involves new ways of studying the ocean’s microbes.
"Microbiology wants in. No longer should microbes and microbial processes be left out of climate change assessments, state 33 researchers from nine countries in their consensus statement1, “Scientists’ warning to humanity: microorganisms and climate change.” There’s a “need to act,” the authors write. By underappreciating the importance of microbial processes both on land and in the oceans, “we fundamentally limit our understanding of Earth’s biosphere and response to climate change and thus jeopardize efforts to create an environmentally sustainable future.” [...]"
Source: Nature Methods
Authors: Vivien Marx
DOI: 10.1038/s41592-020-0736-9
Read the full article here.
Environmental controls on bacteriohopanepolyol profiles of benthic microbial mats from Lake Fryxell, Antarctica
Abstract.
"Bacteriohopanepolyols (BHPs) are pentacyclic triterpenoid lipids that contribute to the structural integrity and physiology of some bacteria. Because some BHPs originate from specific classes of bacteria, BHPs have potential as taxonomically and environmentally diagnostic biomarkers. For example, a stereoisomer of bacteriohopanetetrol (informally BHT II) has been associated with anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) bacteria and suboxic to anoxic marine environments where anammox is active. [...]"
Source: geobiology
Authors: Emily D. Matys et al.
DOI: 10.1111/gbi.12353
Bacterial fermentation and respiration processes are uncoupled in anoxic permeable sediments
Abstract.
"Permeable (sandy) sediments cover half of the continental margin and are major regulators of oceanic carbon cycling. The microbial communities within these highly dynamic sediments frequently shift between oxic and anoxic states, and hence are less stratified than those in cohesive (muddy) sediments. A major question is, therefore, how these communities maintain metabolism during oxic–anoxic transitions. [...]"
Source: Nature Microbiology
Authors: Adam J. Kessler et al.
DOI: 10.1038/s41564-019-0391-z
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