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Dynamics of Seawater Bacterial Communities in a Shellfish Hatchery

  • Microbiology of Aquatic Systems
  • Published:
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Abstract

Bacterial disease is a significant issue for larviculture of several species of shellfish, including oysters. One source of bacteria is the seawater used throughout the hatchery. In this study carried out at a commercial oyster hatchery in Tasmania, Australia, the diversity of the bacterial community and its relationship with larval production outcomes were studied over a 2-year period using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism and tag-encoded pyrosequencing. The bacterial communities were very diverse, dominated by the Alphaproteobacteria, Gammaproteobacteria, Flavobacteria and Cyanobacteria. The communities were highly variable on scales of days, weeks and seasons. The difference between the intake seawater and treated clean seawater used in the hatchery was smaller than the observed temporal differences in the seawater throughout the year. No clear correlation was observed between production outcomes and the overall bacterial community structure. However, one group of Cyanobacterial sequences was more abundant when mass mortality events occurred than when healthy spat were produced although they were always present.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the staff of Shellfish Culture Ltd, particularly those at the Bicheno hatchery, for their assistance with sampling. We would also like to thank Adam Smolenski at the Central Science Laboratory (University of Tasmania) for running the fragment analyses.

This work formed part of a project of the Australian Seafood Cooperative Research Centre and received funds from the Australian Government’s CRC programme, the Fisheries R&D Corporation and other CRC participants.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Australian Seafood Cooperative Research Centre and Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture, University of Tasmania, Private Bay 54, Hobart, TAS, Australia

    S. M. Powell, C. C. Chapman & M. L. Tamplin

  2. Shellfish Culture Ltd, 290 Bicheno Street, Clifton Beach, TAS, Australia

    M. Bermudes

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  1. S. M. Powell
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  2. C. C. Chapman
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  3. M. Bermudes
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  4. M. L. Tamplin
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Correspondence to S. M. Powell.

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Powell, S.M., Chapman, C.C., Bermudes, M. et al. Dynamics of Seawater Bacterial Communities in a Shellfish Hatchery. Microb Ecol 66, 245–256 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-013-0183-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-013-0183-6

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