Recent Advances and Future Perspectives in Microbial Phototrophy in Antarctic Sea Ice

Koh, Eileen Y.; Martin, Andrew; McMinn, Andrew; Ryan, Ken G.

doi:10.3390/biology1030542

Cited by 15 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 125 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Putative nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria were only amplified in one sample in the Central Arctic Ocean (upper part of the ice at -0.2°C), supporting previous hypotheses that this group of nitrogen-fixers has not realized a niche in ice-covered polar open oceans (Murphy and Haugen, 1985; Koh et al, 2012b). However, other nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria have been detected in snow (Harding et al, 2011; Boetius et al, 2015), glacial environments (Yallop et al, 2012; Vonnahme et al, 2015), hydrothermal vents (Mehta et al, 2003), and in other cold environments, such as Antarctic lakes (Olson et al, 1998) and sea ice (Koh et al, 2012a).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Diazotroph Diversity in the Sea Ice, Melt Ponds, and Surface Waters of the Eurasian Basin of the Central Arctic Ocean

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Diazotroph Diversity in the Sea Ice, Melt Ponds, and Surface Waters of the Eurasian Basin of the Central Arctic Ocean

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Indeed, snow and ice environments are generally oligotrophic with low bulk dissolved organic carbon (DOC), so inorganic carbon fixation and autotrophic energy production by primary producers might be important processes [32,71,72]. Photosynthetic activity might be important in several cryosphere ecosystems such as colored snow colonized by snow algae [63,73], ice sheet surfaces [74], ice lake covers [75], sea-ice [76] and cryoconite holes [77]. Non-photochemical autotrophic processes could also be involved in nutrient dynamics within these habitats.…”

Section: High Light Radiation and Low Nutrient Concentrationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Snow and ice ecosystems: not so extreme

Maccario

Sanguino

Vogel

et al. 2015

Research in Microbiology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Based on sequencing results and detection of photopigments, sea ice and sea ice-associated bacteria have also been speculated to be capable of photoautotrophic carbon fixation (Petri and Imhoff 2001;Koh et al 2011Koh et al , 2012Boetius et al 2015). Despite their high abundance in other cold environments, such as glaciers (Vonnahme et al 2016), phototrophic cyanobacteria and anoxygenic phototrophs (e.g., purple sulfur bacteria, Chloroflexi) are not as abundant as eukaryotic sea ice algae, but are frequently detected in the Arctic (Petri and Imhoff 2001;Boetius et al 2015;Yergeau et al 2017) and Antarctic (Koh et al 2011(Koh et al , 2012. Their pigments (phycobiliproteins and bacteriochlorophyll), as well as their genes (e.g., 16S rRNA genes), have been found Koh et al 2012;Boetius et al 2015).…”

Section: Photoautotrophymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite their high abundance in other cold environments, such as glaciers (Vonnahme et al 2016), phototrophic cyanobacteria and anoxygenic phototrophs (e.g., purple sulfur bacteria, Chloroflexi) are not as abundant as eukaryotic sea ice algae, but are frequently detected in the Arctic (Petri and Imhoff 2001;Boetius et al 2015;Yergeau et al 2017) and Antarctic (Koh et al 2011(Koh et al , 2012. Their pigments (phycobiliproteins and bacteriochlorophyll), as well as their genes (e.g., 16S rRNA genes), have been found Koh et al 2012;Boetius et al 2015). However, a proof of their phototrophic activity in sea ice is, yet, lacking.…”

Section: Photoautotrophymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, a proof of their phototrophic activity in sea ice is, yet, lacking. Cyanobacteria are more abundant in the snow layer of sea ice suggesting aeolian origin in the Antarctic (Koh et al 2012). It appears that cyanobacteria are more abundant in fresher systems, such as melt ponds and the Baltic Sea (Petri and Imhoff 2001;Rintala et al 2014) and that they become more abundant in winter ).…”

Section: Photoautotrophymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Progress in Microbial Ecology in Ice-Covered Seas

Vonnahme

Dietrich

Hassett

2019

YOUMARES 9 - The Oceans: Our Research, Our Future

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sea ice seasonally covers 10% of the earth's oceans and shapes global ocean chemistry. The unique physical processes associated with sea ice growth and development shape the associated biological diversity and ecosystem function. Microbes make up the base of all marine food webs and the overwhelming majority of biomass in the sea ice ecosystem. Despite their biomass, microbial processes are not fully integrated into marine ecosystem models. Recent applications of novel molecular biology technologies to studies of marine ecology have elucidated numerous microbial-mediated processes interfaced by previously unknown organisms and processes. These discoveries are yielding more in-depth studies on the relevance of mixotrophy, the ecology of fungi, and the interplay between major microbial clades. In ecosystem studies, the basis of the food web is frequently neglected even though the accessibility of energy, recycling of nutrients, and parasitism are crucial factors shaping the environment for grazers and higher trophic levels. In this review, we focus on the species composition, abundance, and functions of microalgae, bacteria, archaea, fungi, and viruses in the sea ice-covered seas throughout the year. A strong emphasis will be put on advances in molecular methods that empower scientists to further investigate microorganisms in more detail. Since microbes make up the majority of all oceanic biomass, we believe that it is impossible to accurately forecast the biological fate of polar marine ecosystems without placing a proportional emphasis on microbes relative to their biomass.

show abstract

Recent Advances and Future Perspectives in Microbial Phototrophy in Antarctic Sea Ice

Cited by 15 publications

References 125 publications

Diazotroph Diversity in the Sea Ice, Melt Ponds, and Surface Waters of the Eurasian Basin of the Central Arctic Ocean

Diazotroph Diversity in the Sea Ice, Melt Ponds, and Surface Waters of the Eurasian Basin of the Central Arctic Ocean

Snow and ice ecosystems: not so extreme

Progress in Microbial Ecology in Ice-Covered Seas

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About