Abstract
We explored a benthic community living on stones in an acidic (pH≤2) stream of active volcanic origin from Patagonia, Argentina, by combining in situ measurements (temperature, pH, conductivity, dissolved oxygen), photosynthesis of intact biofilms (measured with microsensors by the light–dark shift method), pure-culture experiments on isolated algae, and confocal laser scanning microscopy on the biofilms. The epilithon of the Agrio River was dominated (99% of total biomass) by one species: Gloeochrysis (Chrysophyceae). This species was observed as brown, mucilaginous, 200-μm-thick films on stones, growing in clumps in a dense matrix of fungal hyphae, bacteria, and inorganic particles held together by extracellular polymeric substances. Gloeochrysis was isolated and cultivated. The photosynthetic rate measured at saturation irradiance was 120 μmol oxygen (mg chlorophyll a)−1h−1 under laboratory conditions, and the saturation rate of photosynthesis by carbon dioxide was 90 μmol oxygen (mg chlorophyll a)−1 h−1 for oxygen evolution. Photosynthetic activity of the biofilm was light-dependent and saturated above 200 μmol photons m−2 s−1. In the dark, the stone surface became anoxic. Our data suggest that primary production in the Agrio River was not limited by light, carbon, or phosphorus but instead, nitrogen-limited.
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Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Margarete Mages for performing the elemental analyses, Alberto Taiano for field assistance, and Ute Kuhlicke for help with the CLSM. Thanks to Dr. Elanor Bell for improving the manuscript. Many thanks to Dr. Stephen Maberly (Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Windermere, UK) for setting up and helping in the photosynthesis experiments. This study was supported by grants from Fundación Antorchas, Universidad Nacional del Comahue (04 B920), the International Bureau of Germany, and ANPCyT PICT 01-08186.
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Baffico, G.D., Diaz, M.M., Wenzel, M.T. et al. Community structure and photosynthetic activity of epilithon from a highly acidic (pH≤2) mountain stream in Patagonia, Argentina. Extremophiles 8, 463–473 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-004-0408-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-004-0408-1