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Nutrient Constraints on Metabolism Affect the Temperature Regulation of Aquatic Bacterial Growth Efficiency

  • Microbiology of Aquatic Systems
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Abstract

Inorganic nutrient availability and temperature are recognized as major regulators of organic carbon processing by aquatic bacteria, but little is known about how these two factors interact to control bacterial metabolic processes. We manipulated the temperature of boreal humic stream water samples within 0–25°C and measured bacterial production (BP) and respiration (BR) with and without inorganic nitrogen + phosphorus addition. Both BP and BR increased exponentially with temperature in all experiments, with Q 10 values varying between 1.2 and 2.4. The bacterial growth efficiency (BGE) showed strong negative relationships with temperature in nutrient-enriched samples and in natural stream water where community-level BP and BR were not limited by nutrients. However, there were no relationships between BGE and temperature in samples where BP and BR were significantly constrained by the inorganic nutrient availability. The results suggest that metabolic responses of aquatic bacterial communities to temperature variations can be strongly dependent on whether the bacterial metabolism is limited by inorganic nutrients or not. Such responses can have consequences for both the carbon flux through aquatic food webs and for the flux of CO2 from aquatic systems to the atmosphere.

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Acknowledgments

The financial support for this work was provided by the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (FORMAS) within the LEREC program and the Swedish Research Council (VR). The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation provided resources for the laboratory equipment used to measure respiration. Samples for the study were collected by the Krycklan Catchment crew.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    Martin Berggren, Anders Jonsson & Mats Jansson

  2. Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå, Sweden

    Hjalmar Laudon

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  1. Martin Berggren
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  2. Hjalmar Laudon
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  4. Mats Jansson
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Correspondence to Martin Berggren.

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Berggren, M., Laudon, H., Jonsson, A. et al. Nutrient Constraints on Metabolism Affect the Temperature Regulation of Aquatic Bacterial Growth Efficiency. Microb Ecol 60, 894–902 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-010-9751-1

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