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Simultaneous Measurements of Organic Carbon Mineralization and Bacterial Production in Oxic and Anoxic Lake Sediments

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Abstract

Based on work in marine sediments it can be hypothesized that (i) overall OM mineralization depends on the enzymatic capacity and is largely independent from the energy yield, (ii) similar oxic and anoxic rates are expected for fresh OM, while oxic rates should be faster for old OM that is partially degraded or adsorbed to particles, and (iii) that the thermodynamic energy yield does not regulate mineralization, but primarily determines the energy fraction allocated to bacterial production (BP). We addressed these hypotheses by simultaneous measurements of mineralization rates (MR) and BP in sediments from a eutrophic lake, along with MR measurements in sediments of a dystrophic lake. Anoxic MR were 44 and 78% of oxic MR in the eutrophic and dystrophic lake, respectively, which was always higher than expected given the theoretical energy yields. The BP:MR ratio was 0.94 and 0.24 in the oxic and anoxic treatments, respectively, in accordance with the expected energy yields. Thus, the results support all three hypotheses above. We also critically discuss BP measurements in sediments and suggest that bacterial growth efficiency values from simultaneous MR and BP measurements can be used to evaluate the reliability of BP estimates.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Bo Svensson, Dan Lindmark, and Lars Höglund for invaluable assistance and support during various parts of the work. Håkan Olsson generously provided information about the sampled lakes. This study was funded by the Swedish Natural Science Research Council.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Science Programme, Department of Thematic Studies and Department of Water and Environmental Studies, Linköping University, 581 83 Linköping, Sweden

    D. Bastviken

  2. Department of Physics and Measurement Technology, Division of Biology, Linköping University, SE 581 83 Linköping, Sweden

    M. Olsson

  3. Department of Limnology, Uppsala University, SE 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden

    L. Tranvik

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  1. D. Bastviken
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Correspondence to D. Bastviken.

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Bastviken, D., Olsson, M. & Tranvik, L. Simultaneous Measurements of Organic Carbon Mineralization and Bacterial Production in Oxic and Anoxic Lake Sediments . Microb Ecol 46, 73–82 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-002-1061-9

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