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Spatial and temporal distribution of archaeal diversity in meromictic, hypersaline Ocnei Lake (Transylvanian Basin, Romania)

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Abstract

Saline, meromictic lakes with significant depth are usually formed as a result of salt mining activity. Ocnei Lake is one of the largest Transylvanian (Central Romania) neutral, hypersaline lake of man-made origin. We aimed to survey the seasonal dynamics of archaeal diversity in the water column of Ocnei Lake by employing microbiological methods as well as molecular techniques based on the sequence analysis of the 16S rRNA gene. We found that archaeal diversity in the water column increased with depth and salinity, with 8 OTUs being detected in the epilimnion compared to 21 found in the chemocline, and 32 OTUs in the monimolimnion. Down to 3.5 m depth, the archaeal community was markedly dominated by the presence of an unclassified archaeon sharing 93 % sequence identity to Halogeometricum spp. At the chemocline, the shift in archaeal community composition was associated with an increase in salinity, the main factor affecting the vertical distribution of archaeal assemblages. It appears that the microoxic and hypersaline monimolimnion is populated by several major haloarchaeal taxa, with minor fluctuations in their relative abundances throughout all seasons. The culturable diversity was reasonably correlated to the dominant OTUs obtained by molecular methods. Our results indicate that Ocnei Lake represents a relatively stable extreme habitat, accommodating a diverse and putatively novel archaeal community, as 30 % of OTUs could not be classified at the genus level.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research, CNCS–UEFIS-CDI, project numbers PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0546 and PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0765. We thank Dr. Cosmin Sicora for technical support in qPCR analysis. We are grateful to Dr. Ovidiu Mera for the permission to enter the study area, and to Prof. Elena Rakosy and Prof. Constantin Crăciun for their consent to use the microscopy facilities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Biology and Geology, Babeş-Bolyai University, 5-7 Clinicilor Street, 400006, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Andreea Baricz, Vasile Muntean, Manuela Păuşan & Horia Leonard Banciu

  2. National Institute of Research and Development for Biological Sciences (NIRDBS), Institute of Biological Research, 48 Republicii Street, 400015, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Andreea Baricz, Cristian Coman & Adrian Ştefan Andrei

  3. Institute for Interdisciplinary Research in Bio-Nano-Sciences, Babeş-Bolyai University, 400271, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Adrian Ştefan Andrei & Horia Leonard Banciu

  4. Balaton Limnological Institute, Centre for Ecological Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 8237, Tihany, Hungary

    Zsolt Gyula Keresztes

  5. Faculty of Geography, Babeş-Bolyai University, 400006, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Mircea Alexe

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  1. Andreea Baricz
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  2. Cristian Coman
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Correspondence to Horia Leonard Banciu.

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Communicated by A. Oren.

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Baricz, A., Coman, C., Andrei, A.Ş. et al. Spatial and temporal distribution of archaeal diversity in meromictic, hypersaline Ocnei Lake (Transylvanian Basin, Romania). Extremophiles 18, 399–413 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00792-013-0625-6

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