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Microbial Succession and Nitrogen Cycling in Cultured Biofilms as Affected by the Inorganic Nitrogen Availability

  • Microbiology of Aquatic Systems
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An Erratum to this article was published on 14 September 2016

Abstract

Biofilms play important roles in nutrients and energy cycling in aquatic ecosystems. We hypothesized that as eutrophication could change phytoplankton community and decrease phytoplankton diversity, ambient inorganic nitrogen level will affect the microbial community and diversity of biofilms and the roles of biofilms in nutrient cycling. Biofilms were cultured using a flow incubator either with replete inorganic nitrogen (N-rep) or without exogenous inorganic nitrogen supply (N-def). The results showed that the biomass and nitrogen and phosphorous accumulation of biofilms were limited by N deficiency; however, as expected, the N-def biofilms had significantly higher microbial diversity than that of N-rep biofilms. The microbial community of biofilms shifted in composition and abundance in response to ambient inorganic nitrogen level. For example, as compared between the N-def and the N-rep biofilms, the former consisted of more diazotrophs, while the latter consisted of more denitrifying bacteria. As a result of the shift of the functional microbial community, the N concentration of N-rep medium kept decreasing, while that of N-def medium showed an increasing trend in the late stage. This indicates that biofilms can serve as the source or the sink of nitrogen in aquatic ecosystems, and it depends on the inorganic nitrogen availability.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Jiajia Ni from Guangdong Institute of Microbiology, Guangdong Academy of Science for his help in data analysis of Illumina MiSeq sequencing. This work was supported by the Major Science and Technology Program for Water Pollution Control and Treatment (No. 2012ZX07103003-02).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Algal Biology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Shuangshuang Li, Chengrong Peng, Jiaoli Zheng, Yao Hu & Dunhai Li

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Shuangshuang Li, Chun Wang, Jiaoli Zheng & Yao Hu

  3. Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Chun Wang

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  1. Shuangshuang Li
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  2. Chengrong Peng
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Correspondence to Dunhai Li.

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An erratum to this article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00248-016-0850-5.

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Li, S., Peng, C., Wang, C. et al. Microbial Succession and Nitrogen Cycling in Cultured Biofilms as Affected by the Inorganic Nitrogen Availability. Microb Ecol 73, 1–15 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-016-0827-4

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