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Microbial community respiration and structure of dead zone sediments of Omura Bay, Japan

  • Special Section: Original Article
  • Towards a cooperative research future in the East China Sea—selected research from the 8th International Workshop on Oceanogra
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Abstract

Monitoring sediment microbial community metabolism and structure is instrumental to understanding biogeochemical processes in and ecological impacts on bottom environments. The aim of this study was to determine potential community respiration and to reveal community dynamics of the microorganisms in the dead zone sediments of Omura Bay, Japan. The bay is highly enclosed and develops severe hypoxia in the central regions every summer. We collected sediment core samples from the center of the bay during hypoxia, estimated sediment oxygen consumption by using an adapted in vivo electron transport system activity (in vivo ETSA) assay, enumerated abundance of bacteria, and analyzed bacterial community structure by automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis. Higher ETSA and bacterial diversity were found in upper sediments (within 3 cm depth) from the center than the fringe of the bay. Sediment bacterial community structure of the bay center was distinct from that of the fringe. From these results, upper sediment in the dead zone of Omura Bay was characterized by (1) greater community respiration and (2) greater diversity of bacterial components compared with the non-hypoxic sediment of the bay fringe. These characteristics have important implications for understanding the interaction between microbial communities and the development of hypoxia in Omura Bay.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by KAKENHI (22580202, 21340153, and 22248022). We would like to express many thanks to Mr. K. Hinode and Mr. H. Muta for their support in field sampling. We would also like to thank Mr. H. Suzaki for his valuable comments on the mooring CTD observation. We would also like to thank Dr. S. Takeshita and Dr. T. Suzuki for giving us access to their laboratory equipment. Finally, we would like to thank editor J. D. Reimer for his support and guidance and the two anonymous referees for their valuable comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Fisheries Science and Environmental Studies, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, 825-8251, Japan

    Minoru Wada, Yu Umezawa, Kazumi Matsuoka & Hideaki Nakata

  2. Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, Chiba, 277-8564, Japan

    Shotaro Suzuki

  3. Faculty of Fisheries, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, 825-8251, Japan

    Tadashi Nara

  4. Center for Marine Environment Studies, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, 861-6102, Japan

    Motohiro Shimanaga

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  1. Minoru Wada
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  2. Shotaro Suzuki
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  3. Tadashi Nara
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  4. Yu Umezawa
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  5. Motohiro Shimanaga
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  6. Kazumi Matsuoka
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  7. Hideaki Nakata
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Correspondence to Minoru Wada.

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Wada, M., Suzuki, S., Nara, T. et al. Microbial community respiration and structure of dead zone sediments of Omura Bay, Japan. J Oceanogr 68, 857–867 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10872-012-0136-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10872-012-0136-6

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