Methane-Oxidizing Seawater Microbial Communities from an Arctic Shelf

Marine microbial communities can consume dissolved methane before it can escape to the atmosphere and contribute to global warming. Seawater over the shallow Arctic shelf is characterized by excess methane compared to atmospheric equilibrium. This methane originates in sediment, permafrost, and hydrate. Particularly high concentrations are found beneath sea ice. We studied the structure and methane oxidation potential of the microbial communities from seawater collected close to Utqiagvik, Alaska, in April 2016. The in situ methane concentrations were 16.3 ± 7.2 nmol L−1 , approximately 4.8 times oversaturated relative to atmospheric equilibrium. The group of methaneoxidizing bacteria (MOB) in the natural seawater and incubated seawater was \u3e 97 % dominated by Methylococcales (γ -Proteobacteria). Incubations of seawater under a range of methane concentrations led to loss of diversity in the bacterial community. The abundance of MOB was low with maximal fractions of 2.5 % at 200 times elevated methane concentration, while sequence reads of non-MOB methylotrophs were 4 times more abundant than MOB in most incubations. The abundances of MOB as well as non-MOB methylotroph sequences correlated tightly with the rate constant (kox) for methane oxidation, indicating that non-MOB methylotrophs might be coupled to MOB and involved in community methane oxidation. In sea ice, where methane concentrations of 82 ± 35.8 nmol kg−1 were found, Methylobacterium (α-Proteobacteria) was the dominant MOB with a relative abundance of 80 %. Total MOB abundances were very low in sea ice, with maximal fractions found at the ice– snow interface (0.1 %), while non-MOB methylotrophs were present in abundances similar to natural seawater communities. The dissimilarities in MOB taxa, methane concentrations, and stable isotope ratios between the sea ice and water column point toward different methane dynamics in the two environments

Exploring New Drilling Prospects in the Southwest Pacific

A major International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) workshop covering scientific ocean drilling in the southwest Pacific Ocean was held in Sydney, Australia, in late 2012. The workshop covered all fields of geoscience, and drilling targets in the area from the Equator to Antarctica. High-quality contributions and a positive and cooperative atmosphere ensured its success. The four science themes of the new IODP science plan were addressed. An additional resource-oriented theme considered possible co-investment opportunities involving IODP vessels. As a result of the workshop, existing proposals were revised and new ones written for the April 2013 deadline. Many of the proposals are broad and multidisciplinary in nature, hence broadening the scientific knowledge that can be produced by using the IODP infrastructure. This report briefly outlines the workshop and the related drilling plans

Bacterial and Archaeal Biogeography of the Deep Chlorophyll Maximum in the South Pacific Gyre

We used 16S rRNA gene tag pyrosequencing to examine the biogeography of bacterial and archaeal community composition in the deep chlorophyll maximum (DCM) of the South Pacific Gyre (SPG), the largest and most oligotrophic region of the world ocean. Dominant DCM bacterial taxa, including Prochlorococcus, SAR11, SAR406, and SAR86, were present at each sampled site in similar proportions, although the sites are separated by thousands of kilometers and up to 100 m in water depth. Marine Group II (MGII) and MGIII Euryarcheota dominated the archaeal assemblages of the DCM at these sites. Bray-Curtis indices show that assemblage composition of these sites is \u3e70% similar for Bacteria and \u3e80% similar for Archaea. Despite these similarities, communities of the central SPG, the western SPG margin, and the southern SPG margin are distinguishable from each other. Comparison of our bacterial results to samples from the DCM of the North Pacific Gyre (NPG) and the relatively nutrient- and chlorophyll-rich Equatorial Pacific (EQP) shows that DCM bacterial assemblage composition is \u3e50% similar throughout all 3 regions. Nonetheless, the SPG, NPG, and EQP assemblages are statistically distinct from each other (ANOSIM, p = 0.001), with the communities of the 2 gyres resembling each other more closely than either resembles the EQP community (which lives geographically between them). Variation in assemblage composition correlates with sea-surface chlorophyll concentration (r2 = 0.71, p \u3c 0.003). This study demonstrates that the DCM horizons of different oceanic regions harbor statistically distinct communities that are consistent within regions for thousands of kilometers

An effect of dissolved nutrient concentrations on alkenonebased temperature estimates

The ratio of 37-carbon diunsaturated to diunsaturated and triunsaturated alkenones (UK\u2737) produced by some haptophytes is widely used as a proxy for past sea surface temperatures. However, our isothermal culturing experiments with Emiliania huxleyi clone CCMP372 show UK\u2737 values to also vary with nutrient availability and cell division rate. These results provide a reasonable explanation for large isothermal variation in UK\u2737 values of single coccolithophorid strains grown in culture. They also suggest that alkenone-based estimates of past sea surface temperatures may have been influenced by dissolved nutrient concentrations as well as by temperature

The effects of pH on acoustic transmission loss in an estuary

Increasing atmospheric CO2will cause the ocean to become more acidic with pH values predicted to be more than 0.3 units lower over the next 100 years. These lower pH values have the potential to reduce the absorption component of transmission loss associated with dissolved boron. Transmission loss effects have been well studied for deep water where pH is relatively stable over time-scales of many years. However, estuarine and coastal pH can vary daily or seasonally by about 1 pH unit and cause fluctuations in one-way acoustic transmission loss of 2 dB over a range of 10 km at frequencies of 1kHz or higher. These absorption changes can affect the sound pressure levels received by animals due to identifiable sources such as impact pile driving. In addition, passive and active sonar performance in these estuarine and coastal waters can be affected by these pH fluctuations. Absorption changes in these shallow water environments offer a potential laboratory to study their effect on ambient noise due to distributed sources such as shipping and wind. We introduce an inversion technique based on perturbation methods to estimate the depth-dependent pH profile from measurements of normal mode attenuation

Sedimentary record of post-Mesozoic global events in the Caribbean Sea : Preliminary results of ODP Leg 165

Drilling at five ODP sites (998 to 1002) in the Caribbean Sea has provided an excellent marine record representing nearly 80 m.y. of Earth history. Regional and global events can be analyzed: the mid-Campanian to lower Eocene section includes unique records of the K/T boundary and the \u27late Paleocene thermal maximum\u27; the spectacular record of Eocene and Miocene explosive volcanism is unmatched in its magnitude and chronostratigraphic resolution; the spatial distribution of a middle/late Miocene minimum in carbonate accumulation (\u27carbonate crash\u27) was extended from a regional anomaly in the Pacific to an interbasinal tropical phenomenon