Microscale spatial distributions of microbes and viruses in intertidal photosynthetic microbial mats

Cátia Carreira; Tim Piel; Marc Staal; Jan-Berend W Stuut; Mathias Middelboe; Corina P D Brussaard

doi:10.1186/s40064-015-0977-8

Microscale spatial distributions of microbes and viruses in intertidal photosynthetic microbial mats

Springerplus. 2015 May 23:4:239. doi: 10.1186/s40064-015-0977-8. eCollection 2015.

Authors

Cátia Carreira¹, Tim Piel², Marc Staal³, Jan-Berend W Stuut⁴, Mathias Middelboe³, Corina P D Brussaard⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biological Oceanography, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), PO Box 59, NL 1790 AB Den Burg, The Netherlands ; Section for Marine Biology, University of Copenhagen, Strandpromenaden 5, 3000, Helsingør, Denmark.
² Department of Biological Oceanography, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), PO Box 59, NL 1790 AB Den Burg, The Netherlands.
³ Section for Marine Biology, University of Copenhagen, Strandpromenaden 5, 3000, Helsingør, Denmark.
⁴ Department of Marine Geology and Chemical Oceanography, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), PO Box 59, NL 1790 AB Den Burg, The Netherlands ; Department of Marine Geology, MARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, PO Box 330440, D 28334 Bremen, Germany.
⁵ Department of Biological Oceanography, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), PO Box 59, NL 1790 AB Den Burg, The Netherlands ; Aquatic Microbiology, Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Abstract

Intertidal photosynthetic microbial mats from the Wadden Sea island Schiermonnikoog were examined for microscale (millimetre) spatial distributions of viruses, prokaryotes and oxygenic photoautotrophs (filamentous cyanobacteria and benthic diatoms) at different times of the year. Abundances of viruses and prokaryotes were among the highest found in benthic systems (0.05-5.43 × 10(10) viruses g(-1) and 0.05-2.14 × 10(10) prokaryotes g(-1)). The spatial distribution of viruses, prokaryotes and oxygenic photoautotrophs were highly heterogeneous at mm scales. The vertical distributions of both prokaryotic and viral abundances were related to the depth of the oxygenic photoautotrophic layer, implying that the photosynthetic mat fuelled the microbial processes in the underlying layer. Our data suggest that viruses could make an important component in these productive environments potentially affecting the biodiversity and nutrient cycling within the mat.

Keywords: Oxygenic photoautotrophs; Photosynthetic microbial mats; Prokaryotes; Spatial distribution; Viruses.