Seasonal nitrogen uptake and regeneration in the western coastal Arctic

Here, we present the first study to investigate the seasonal importance of amino acid-nitrogen (N) to Arctic near shore microbial communities. We measured primary productivity and the uptake of ammonium, nitrate, urea, and amino acids in two size fractions (\u3e 3 m and approximately 0.7-3 m), as well as ammonium regeneration and nitrification using N-15 and C-13 tracer approaches in the near-shore waters of the Chukchi Sea, during January, April, and August for two consecutive years. At discrete depths, nitrate comprised 46-78% of the total dissolved N pool during January and April but only 2-6% during August. Dissolved organic N (DON) concentrations increased between January and August though the carbon (C):N (mol:mol) of the DON pool declined. Of the substrates tested, amino acids supported the bulk of both N and C nutrition in both size fractions during January and April (ice-covered). Urea generally had the lowest uptake rate under ice-covered conditions; uptake of urea-C was only detectable in August. Though previous Arctic studies focused largely on nitrate, we found nitrate uptake was generally lower than other substrates tested. The sharp decline in nitrate concentration between April and August, however, indicates a drawdown of nitrate during that period. Rates of ammonium uptake were highest in August, when it was the dominant N substrate used. During all sample periods, rates of ammonium regeneration were sufficient to supply ammonium demand. Rates of nitrification varied between sample periods, however, with much higher rates seen in January and April

Effluent Organic Nitrogen (EON): Bioavailability and Photochemical and Salinity-Mediated Release

The goal of this study was to investigate three potential ways that the soluble organic nitrogen (N) fraction of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents, termed effluent organic N (EON), could contribute to coastal eutrophication - direct biological removal, photochemical release of labile compounds, and salinity-mediated release of ammonium (NH4+). Effluents from two WWTPs were used in the experiments. For the bioassays, EON was added to water from four salinities (similar to 0 to 30) collected from the James River (VA) in August 2008, and then concentrations of N and phosphorus compounds were measured periodically over 48 h. Bioassay results, based on changes in DON concentrations, indicate that some fraction of the EON was removed and that the degree of EON removal varied between effluents and with salinity. Further, we caution that bioassay results should be interpreted within a broad context of detailed information on chemical characterization. EON from both WWTPs was also photoreactive, with labile NH4+ and dissolved primary amines released during exposure to sunlight. We also present the first data that demonstrate that when EON is exposed to higher salinities, increasing amounts of NH4+ are released, further facilitating EON use as effluent transits from freshwater through estuaries to the coast

Preliminary estimate of contribution of Arctic nitrogen fixation to the global nitrogen budget

Dinitrogen (N-2) fixation is the source of all biologically available nitrogen on earth, and its presence or absence impacts net primary production and global biogeochemical cycles. Here, we report rates of 3.5-17.2 nmol N L-1 d(-1) in the ice-free coastal Alaskan Arctic to show that N-2 fixation in the Arctic Ocean may be an important source of nitrogen to a seasonally nitrogen-limited system. If widespread in surface waters over ice-free shelves throughout the Arctic, N-2 fixation could contribute up to 3.5 Tg N yr(-1) to the Arctic nitrogen budget. At these rates, N-2 fixation occurring in ice-free summer waters would offset up to 27.1% of the Arctic denitrification deficit and contribute an additional 2.7% to N-2 fixation globally, making it an important consideration in the current debate of whether nitrogen in the global ocean is in steady state. Additional investigations of high-latitude marine diazotrophic physiology are required to refine these N-2 fixation estimates

Microbial Community Response to Terrestrially Derived Dissolved Organic Matter in the Coastal Arctic

Warming at nearly twice the global rate, higher than average air temperatures are the new \u27normal\u27 for Arctic ecosystems. This rise in temperature has triggered hydrological and geochemical changes that increasingly release carbon-rich water into the coastal ocean via increased riverine discharge, coastal erosion, and the thawing of the semipermanent permafrost ubiquitous in the region. To determine the biogeochemical impacts of terrestrially derived dissolved organic matter (tDOM) on marine ecosystems we compared the nutrient stocks and bacterial communities present under ice-covered and ice-free conditions, assessed the lability of Arctic tDOM to coastal microbial communities from the Chukchi Sea, and identified bacterial taxa that respond to rapid increases in tDOM. Once thought to be predominantly refractory, we found that similar to 7% of dissolved organic carbon and similar to 38% of dissolved organic nitrogen from tDOM was bioavailable to receiving marine microbial communities on short 4 - 6 day time scales. The addition of tDOM shifted bacterial community structure toward more copiotrophic taxa and away from more oligotrophic taxa. Although no single order was found to respond universally (positively or negatively) to the tDOM addition, this study identified 20 indicator species as possible sentinels for increased tDOM. These data suggest the true ecological impact of tDOM will be widespread across many bacterial taxa and that shifts in coastal microbial community composition should be anticipated

Pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes

Cancer is driven by genetic change, and the advent of massively parallel sequencing has enabled systematic documentation of this variation at the whole-genome scale(1-3). Here we report the integrative analysis of 2,658 whole-cancer genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types from the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We describe the generation of the PCAWG resource, facilitated by international data sharing using compute clouds. On average, cancer genomes contained 4-5 driver mutations when combining coding and non-coding genomic elements; however, in around 5% of cases no drivers were identified, suggesting that cancer driver discovery is not yet complete. Chromothripsis, in which many clustered structural variants arise in a single catastrophic event, is frequently an early event in tumour evolution; in acral melanoma, for example, these events precede most somatic point mutations and affect several cancer-associated genes simultaneously. Cancers with abnormal telomere maintenance often originate from tissues with low replicative activity and show several mechanisms of preventing telomere attrition to critical levels. Common and rare germline variants affect patterns of somatic mutation, including point mutations, structural variants and somatic retrotransposition. A collection of papers from the PCAWG Consortium describes non-coding mutations that drive cancer beyond those in the TERT promoter(4); identifies new signatures of mutational processes that cause base substitutions, small insertions and deletions and structural variation(5,6); analyses timings and patterns of tumour evolution(7); describes the diverse transcriptional consequences of somatic mutation on splicing, expression levels, fusion genes and promoter activity(8,9); and evaluates a range of more-specialized features of cancer genomes(8,10-18).Peer reviewe