Resource quantity affects benthic microbial community structure and growth efficiency in a temperate intertidal mudflat.

ABSTRACT: Estuaries cover <1% of marine habitats, but the carbon dioxide (CO(2)) effluxes from these net heterotrophic systems contribute significantly to the global carbon cycle. Anthropogenic eutrophication of estuarine waterways increases the supply of labile substrates to the underlying sediments. How such changes affect the form and functioning of the resident microbial communities remains unclear. We employed a carbon-13 pulse-chase experiment to investigate how a temperate estuarine benthic microbial community at 6.5°C responded to additions of marine diatom-derived organic carbon equivalent to 4.16, 41.60 and 416.00 mmol C m(-2). The quantities of carbon mineralized and incorporated into bacterial biomass both increased significantly, albeit differentially, with resource supply. This resulte

SUBMITTER: Mayor DJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3377660 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature