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Phototrophic Communities of the Berikei Highly Mineralized Mesothermal Sulfide Springs (Dagestan, Russia)

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Abstract—

Phototrophic communities forming in the bottom of the Berikei highly mineralized mesothermal sulfide springs (Kayakent region, Dagestan, Russia) were investigated. The Berikei springs are an interesting example of combined effect of such factors as temperature, salinity, pH, and sulfide of occurrence and structure of phototrophic microbial communities. The water was of the sodium chloride type with salinity of 48‒97 g/L, near-neutral brine pH, and sulfide concentration of ~1 mM. The temperature at the stream bottom was as high as 60°C. Elevated temperature and high salinity limited the development of phototrophic communities. Formation of cyanobacterial mats occurred at temperatures below 54°C. Phormidium-like cyanobacteria and unicellular Synechocystis sp. predominated in the mats. The number of cyanobacterial species increased at desalination to 48‒57 g/L with emergence of the species morphologically resembling Spirulina sp., Leptolyngbya sp., and Oscillatoria sp. Among anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria, halophilic purple bacteria Ectothiorhodospira sp., Marichromatium sp., and Rhodovulum sp., green sulfur bacteria Prosthecochloris sp., and unidentified Chloroflexi were present. Oxygenic photosynthesis in the mats was not inhibited by sulfide. Production of cyanobacterial mats was up to 4.7‒53.8 µg/(cm2 h). The contribution of anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria to photosynthetic production varied from 0 to 100%. The composition of this microbial community was compared to those of the phototrophic microbial communities of the mesothermal springs of the Dead Sea coast (Israel), the Washington warm lake (United States), and the Paoha Island hot springs (Mono Lake, United States.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors are grateful to their colleagues and students who participated in the field research of microbial mats of the Berikei springs.

This work was financially supported by the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences via the program “Evolution of the Organic World and Planet-Scale Processes” (Subprogram 2) and by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research project nos. 16-04-00830 and 19-04-00423 and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation. DNA sequencing was partially performed using the equipment of the Collective Use Center “Bioengineering” of the Federal Research Center of Biotechnology.

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  1. Winogradsky Institute of Microbiology, Research Center of Biotechnology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119071, Moscow, Russia

    V. M. Gorlenko, E. I. Burganskaya & I. A. Bryantseva

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  1. V. M. Gorlenko
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  2. E. I. Burganskaya
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  3. I. A. Bryantseva
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Correspondence to V. M. Gorlenko.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. This article does not contain any studies involving animals or human participants performed by any of the authors.

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Translated by D. Timchenko

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Gorlenko, V.M., Burganskaya, E.I. & Bryantseva, I.A. Phototrophic Communities of the Berikei Highly Mineralized Mesothermal Sulfide Springs (Dagestan, Russia). Microbiology 88, 146–155 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0026261719020048

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