Abstract:
Hydrocarbon contamination of marine cyanobacterial mats influences the structure and the function of their microbial communities. In this chapter, we describe the microsensor setup and the practical procedures involved in the use of O2, sulfide and pH electrodes to measure various metabolic processes in cyanobacterial mats. Microsensors, which are needle-shaped glass electrodes with tip diameters of 1–30 μm, are appropriate tools for investigating the effect of pollution on photosynthesis, oxygen consumption and sulfate reduction with high spatial resolution and under in situ conditions. Microsensor measurements allow the detection of mat physico-chemical microenvironment and the estimation of zonation and rates of metabolic processes. Fast oxygen microsensors are employed to determine the depth distribution and rates of oxygenic gross photosynthesis using light-dark shift method. From the rates of gross photosynthesis and the steady-state oxygen concentration profiles, net photosynthesis and oxygen consumption in the photosynthetic and the non-photosynthetic zones can be calculated by direct flux calculations. Previous research applying microsensors demonstrated a stimulation of aerobic respiration and sulfate reduction but inhibition of photosynthesis in polluted cyanobacterial mats compared to unpolluted controls. These physiological changes, when monitored along with changes in bacterial communities and contaminants concentration, provide an overview of the whole ecosystem response to hydrocarbon pollution and hints as to which bacterial groups might be involved in the degradation of contaminants.
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Abed, R.M.M., Beer, D.d. (2010). Microsensor Techniques to Study in situ Bacterial Metabolic Processes in Hydrocarbon-Polluted Marine Cyanobacterial Mats. In: Timmis, K.N. (eds) Handbook of Hydrocarbon and Lipid Microbiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-77587-4_288
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-77587-4_288
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