Stoichiometry of natural bacterial assemblages from lakes located across an elevational gradient.

ABSTRACT: Heterotrophic bacteria are thought to be phosphorus-rich organisms with relatively homeostatic stoichiometry, but the elemental composition of natural bacterial communities has rarely been assessed. Here we tested whether bacterial stoichiometry changes with the trophic status of lakes by assessing the elemental composition of the bacterial-dominated (hereafter microbial) fraction together with that of the dissolved and seston fractions in 11 lakes situated along an elevational gradient. The stoichiometry of these three size-fractions was analyzed during the thermal stratification and mixing periods in composite water samples and in the water layer of the deep chlorophyll-a maximum. In addition, we analyzed the relative abundance of the most common bacterial groups in the lakes. Our result

SUBMITTER: Stenzel B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5517659 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature