Bacteria contribute to sediment nutrient release and reflect progressed eutrophication-driven hypoxia in an organic-rich continental sea.

ABSTRACT: In the sedimental organic matter of eutrophic continental seas, such as the largest dead zone in the world, the Baltic Sea, bacteria may directly participate in nutrient release by mineralizing organic matter or indirectly by altering the sediment's ability to retain nutrients. Here, we present a case study of a hypoxic sea, which receives riverine nutrient loading and in which microbe-mediated vicious cycles of nutrients prevail. We showed that bacterial communities changed along the horizontal loading and vertical mineralization gradients in the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, using multivariate statistics of terminal restriction fragments and sediment chemical, spatial and other properties of the sampling sites. The change was mainly explained by concentrations of organic carbon, nit

SUBMITTER: Sinkko H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3692436 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature