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Bacterial Activity and Bacterioplankton Diversity in the Eutrophic River Warnow—Direct Measurement of Bacterial Growth Efficiency and Its Effect on Carbon Utilization

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Abstract

The influence of bacterial activity and diversity on bacterial growth efficiency was investigated in a flatland river. Eutrophic River Warnow drains predominantly agricultural land and is heavily loaded with nutrients, dissolved and particulate organic matter (DOM and POM), especially humic substances. Although the water column bacterial community consists of many inactive or damaged cells, bacterioplankton sustained a high bacterial secondary production of 0.2–14.5 μg C L−1 h−1 and a high DNA synthesis (thymidine uptake) of 6.1–15.5 μg C L−1 h−1. The direct and short-term measurement of bacterial respiration (by optodes) revealed high respiration rates especially in summer leading to directly estimated bacterial growth efficiencies (BGE) of 2–28%. These values are compared to calculations based only on bacterial production, which considerably overestimated BGEs. From all these data, River Warnow can be characterized as a strongly remineralizing system. River Warnow was dominated among others by Cytophaga/Flavobacteria and Actinobacteria which are typical for organic rich waters because of their ability to degrade high molecular weight compounds. However, community composition did not significantly affect BGE.

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Acknowledgements

We thank H.P. Grossart (IGB Berlin) for his help with glucose analytics. This work was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, to H.M. Freese. We are grateful for the interesting discussion with and valuable suggestions made by all reviewers.

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  1. Mareike Warkentin

    Present address: Medical School, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University of Rostock, Doberaner Strasse 137-139, 18057, Rostock, Germany

  2. Heike M. Freese

    Present address: Department of Biology, Microbial Ecology and Limnology, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstrasse 10, 78464, Constance, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biological Sciences, Applied Ecology, University of Rostock, Albert-Einstein-Strasse 3, 18059, Rostock, Germany

    Mareike Warkentin, Heike M. Freese & Rhena Schumann

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  1. Mareike Warkentin
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Correspondence to Mareike Warkentin.

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Warkentin, M., Freese, H.M. & Schumann, R. Bacterial Activity and Bacterioplankton Diversity in the Eutrophic River Warnow—Direct Measurement of Bacterial Growth Efficiency and Its Effect on Carbon Utilization. Microb Ecol 61, 190–200 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-010-9729-z

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