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Environmental controls on estuarine nitrifying communities along a salinity gradient

2017; Inter-Research Science Center; Volume: 80; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3354/ame01847

1616-1564

Mariana Monteiro, Joana Séneca, Luı́s Torgo, Daniel F. R. Cleary, Newton C. M. Gomes, Alyson E. Santoro, Catarina Magalhães,

Protist diversity and phylogeny

AME Aquatic Microbial Ecology Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsSpecials AME 80:167-180 (2017) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/ame01847 Environmental controls on estuarine nitrifying communities along a salinity gradient Maria Monteiro1,*, Joana Séneca1,2, Luís Torgo2, Daniel F. R. Cleary3, Newton C. M. Gomes3, Alyson E. Santoro4,5, Catarina Magalhães1 1Novo Edifício do Terminal de Cruzeiros do Porto de Leixões Avenida General Norton de Matos, S/N 4450-208 Matosinhos, Portugal 2LIAAD-INESC Porto LA, R. Ceuta 118-6, 4050-190 Porto, Portugal 3Department of Biology, CESAM, Universidade de Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal 4Horn Point Laboratory, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Cambridge, MD 21613, USA 5Present address: Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA *Corresponding author: mariaroviscomonteiro@gmail.com ABSTRACT: Estuaries are transitional zones between marine and freshwater environments and are ideal systems to study the influence of environmental gradients on microbial biodiversity and activity. In this study, we investigated the effect of a salinity gradient on the structure of prokaryotic communities from intertidal sediments of the Douro estuary, and on the nitrification process. Four locations were chosen with distinct salinities and characterized for a range of environmental parameters including measurements of potential nitrification rates. The structure of prokaryotic communities and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and archaea were described and identified using the 16S rRNA gene. Potential nitrification rates ranged from 1.3 to 7.4 µmol cm-2 h–1, with the highest rate at mesohaline sites; however, the relative abundance of nitrifying taxa was higher at locations with higher salinity. Ammonia-oxidizing bacteria could not be detected in oligohaline sites, in contrast to ammonia-oxidizing archaea, which showed a ubiquitous distribution. Nitrite-oxidizing bacteria were more abundant than ammonia-oxidizing groups across meso-oligohaline sites, showing increased relative abundance at less saline sites. One operational taxonomic unit closely related to Nitrospira moscoviensis showed a positive correlation with potential nitrification rates, suggesting a possible association of N. moscoviensis with ammonia-oxidizing organisms in a natural ecosystem. Such results point out the need to re-assess the relative roles of different nitrifying groups in the nitrification process. KEY WORDS: Estuaries · Salinity · 16S rRNA gene · Nitrification · Nitrifying communities Full text in pdf format Supplementary material PreviousNextCite this article as: Monteiro M, Séneca J, Torgo L, Cleary DFR, Gomes NCM, Santoro AE, Magalhães C (2017) Environmental controls on estuarine nitrifying communities along a salinity gradient. Aquat Microb Ecol 80:167-180. https://doi.org/10.3354/ame01847 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in AME Vol. 80, No. 2. Online publication date: October 05, 2017 Print ISSN: 0948-3055; Online ISSN: 1616-1564 Copyright © 2017 Inter-Research.