Abstract
Although a relatively high diversity of eukaryotic organisms exists in anoxic habitats, these extreme environments are mainly characterized by their prokaryotic communities. The meromictic alpine Lake Alat in Bavaria, Germany exhibits a stable chemocline throughout the year. In contrast to many other freshwater habitats, the purple sulfur bacteria bloom is a thick, well-defined layer. The different bacterial assemblages involved in the sulfur cycle create a stable and permanent environment. Chemical and thermal stratification make this lake a very unique lentic habitat. The thermo- and the chemocline were described by measurements of physical parameters, such as temperature, oxygen, and conductivity, as well as the chemobiological measurements of particulate organic carbon and nitrogen concentrations. With the analyses of environmental DNA samples, we studied the bacterial diversity within this thermocline. Universal bacterial 16S rDNA as well as specific Chromatiaceae 16S rDNA PCR were cloned. Analyses showed that almost all randomly chosen clones were among γ-proteobacteria more specifically; sequences are most similar to the family Chromatiaceae, but few δ-proteobacteria occur.
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Acknowledgments
We thank the city of Füssen and the Hotel Alatsee for their great support of our research. We also thank Andy Reuner and Inge Polle of the Department of Zoology, Universität Stuttgart for their support in the laboratory.
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Fritz, G.B., Pfannkuchen, M., Struck, U., Hengherr, S., Strohmeier, S., Brümmer, F. (2012). Characterizing an Anoxic Habitat: Sulfur Bacteria in a Meromictic Alpine Lake. In: Altenbach, A., Bernhard, J., Seckbach, J. (eds) Anoxia. Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology, vol 21. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1896-8_23
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