Filamentous manganese (Mn) oxide particles, which occur in the suboxic zone of stratified waterbodies, are important drivers of diverse elemental cycles. These particles are considered to be bacteriogenic; despite the importance of biogeochemical implications, however, the environmental factor responsible for their formation has not been identified. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the involvement of algal extracellular polysaccharides in Mn oxide particle formation. Based on this study of laboratory cultures of a model Mn(II)-oxidizing bacterium, the supply of algal extracellular mucilage was shown to stimulate Mn(II) oxidation and thus the production of filamentous Mn oxide particles. This observation was consistent with the results obtained for naturally occurring particles collected from a near-bottom layer (depth of approximately 90 m) in the northern basin of Lake Biwa, Japan, that is, most Mn particles resembling δ-MnO2 were associated with an extracellular mucilage-like gelatinous matrix, which contained dead algal cells and was lectin-stainable. In the lake water column, polysaccharides produced by algal photosynthesis sank to the bottom layer. The analysis of the quality of water samples, which have been collected from the study site for 18 years, reveals that the annual average total phytoplankton biovolume in the surface layer correlates with the density of filamentous Mn particles in the near-bottom layer. Among different phytoplankton species, green algae appeared to be the key species. The results of this study suggest that algal extracellular polysaccharides serve as an important inducer for the formation of filamentous Mn oxide particles in the near-bottom layer of the northern basin of Lake Biwa.
Keywords: Metallogenium-like particles; biogenic manganese oxides; manganese(II)-oxidizing bacterium; total polysaccharide content; transparent exopolymer particles.