1 research outputs found
Functional Seasonality of Free-Living and Particle-Associated Prokaryotic Communities in the Coastal Adriatic Sea
Marine snow is an important habitat for microbes, characterized by chemical and
physical properties contrasting those of the ambient water. The higher nutrient
concentrations in marine snow lead to compositional differences between the
ambient water and the marine snow-associated prokaryotic community. Whether these
compositional differences vary due to seasonal environmental changes, however,
remains unclear. Thus, we investigated the seasonal patterns of the free-living and
marine snow-associated microbial community composition and their functional potential
in the northern Adriatic Sea. Our data revealed seasonal patterns in both, the freeliving and marine snow-associated prokaryotes. The two assemblages were more
similar to each other in spring and fall than in winter and summer. The taxonomic
distinctness resulted in a contrasting functional potential. Motility and adaptations to
low temperature in winter and partly anaerobic metabolism in summer characterized
the marine snow-associated prokaryotes. Free-living prokaryotes were enriched in
genes indicative for functions related to phosphorus limitation in winter and in
genes tentatively supplementing heterotrophic growth with proteorhodopsins and
CO-oxidation in summer. Taken together, the results suggest a strong influence of
environmental parameters on both free-living and marine snow-associated prokaryotic
communities in spring and fall leading to higher similarity between the communities,
while the marine snow habitat in winter and summer leads to a specific prokaryotic
community in marine snow in these two seasons.Postprin