Sea foams are ephemeral hotspots for distinctive bacterial communities contrasting sea-surface microlayer and underlying surface water
Laen...
Kuupäev
2021
Kättesaadav alates
Ajakirja pealkiri
Ajakirja ISSN
Köite pealkiri
Kirjastaja
Oxford University Press
Abstrakt
The occurrence of foams at oceans’ surfaces is patchy and generally short-lived, but a detailed understanding of bacterial
communities inhabiting sea foams is lacking. Here, we investigated how marine foams differ from the sea-surface
microlayer (SML), a <1-mm-thick layer at the air–sea interface, and underlying water from 1 m depth. Samples of sea
foams, SML and underlying water collected from the North Sea and Timor Sea indicated that foams were often
characterized by a high abundance of small eukaryotic phototrophic and prokaryotic cells as well as a high concentration of
surface-active substances (SAS). Amplicon sequencing of 16S rRNA (gene) revealed distinctive foam bacterial communities
compared with SML and underlying water, with high abundance of Gammaproteobacteria. Typical SML dwellers such as Pseudoalteromonas and Vibrio were highly abundant, active foam inhabitants and thus might enhance foam formation and
stability by producing SAS. Despite a clear difference in the overall bacterial community composition between foam and
SML, the presence of SML bacteria in foams supports the previous assumption that foam is strongly influenced by the SML.
We conclude that active and abundant bacteria from interfacial habitats potentially contribute to foam formation and
stability, carbon cycling and air–sea exchange processes in the ocean.
This work was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) project ”Parameterization of the Sea-Surface Microlayer Effect” (PASSME, grant number GA336408), and the Leibniz Association project ”Marine biogenic production, organic aerosols and maritime clouds: a process chain” (MarParCloud, grant number SAW-2016-TROPOS-2). DPRH was supported by the European Regional Development Fund/Estonian Research Council-funded Mobilitas Pluss Top Researcher (grant numbers MOBTT24 and P200028PKKH).
This work was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) project ”Parameterization of the Sea-Surface Microlayer Effect” (PASSME, grant number GA336408), and the Leibniz Association project ”Marine biogenic production, organic aerosols and maritime clouds: a process chain” (MarParCloud, grant number SAW-2016-TROPOS-2). DPRH was supported by the European Regional Development Fund/Estonian Research Council-funded Mobilitas Pluss Top Researcher (grant numbers MOBTT24 and P200028PKKH).
Kirjeldus
Märksõnad
air–sea interface, surfactants, particles, 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, neuston, articles