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Diversity of Desulfobacteriaceae and Overall Activity of Sulfate-Reducing Microorganisms in and Around a Salt pan in a Southern California Coastal Wetland

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Abstract

Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) are key mediators of anaerobic carbon cycling in coastal salt marsh sediments and have been shown to be important decomposer communities even in hypersaline habitats. Understanding how SRB function in various salt marsh habitats (vegetated, salt pans) is crucial to advancing our knowledge of salt marsh function. We compare overall sulfate reducing activity and the diversity of a subset of SRB (Desulfobacteriaceae) in two hypersaline sediments (salt pan and nearby area with desiccated vegetation) with a regularly inundated control site within the Huntington Beach Wetlands (HBW). Biological activity was quantified using radiotracer studies to measure sulfate reduction rates (SRR) with and without carbon amendment. All sites showed enhanced SRR under carbon amendment, suggesting short-term carbon limitation. Unique communities of Desulfobacteriaceae were found in all three sites with increased incidence of halotolerant genotypes in the salt pan. These findings indicate that, despite reduced anaerobic respiratory activity, highly diverse and functional deltaproteobacterial communities exist in salt pan and surrounding hypersaline habitats in coastal salt marshes in southern California.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Huntington Beach Wetland Conservancy and Kristen Bender for allowing us to access the field site and for facilitating our research. We thank Nathan McLain for assistance in depositing sequences in Genbank and Salvador Deniz for his assistance in the laboratory. This research was funded in part by the National Institutes of General Medical Sciences Grant # 5R25GM050089-12.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, California State University, 1250 Bellflower Blvd., Long Beach, CA, 90840, USA

    Karen L. Jackson, Christine R. Whitcraft & Jesse G. Dillon

  2. United States Food and Drug Administration, 19701 Fairchild, Irvine, CA, 92603, USA

    Karen L. Jackson

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  1. Karen L. Jackson
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Correspondence to Jesse G. Dillon.

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Jackson, K.L., Whitcraft, C.R. & Dillon, J.G. Diversity of Desulfobacteriaceae and Overall Activity of Sulfate-Reducing Microorganisms in and Around a Salt pan in a Southern California Coastal Wetland. Wetlands 34, 969–977 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-014-0560-z

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