scholarly journals Bioturbation enhances the aerobic respiration of lake sediments in warming lakes

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 20160448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viktor Baranov ◽  
Jörg Lewandowski ◽  
Stefan Krause

While lakes occupy less than 2% of the total surface of the Earth, they play a substantial role in global biogeochemical cycles. For instance, shallow lakes are important sites of carbon metabolism. Aerobic respiration is one of the important drivers of the carbon metabolism in lakes. In this context, bioturbation impacts of benthic animals (biological reworking of sediment matrix and ventilation of the sediment) on sediment aerobic respiration have previously been underestimated. Biological activity is likely to change over the course of a year due to seasonal changes of water temperatures. This study uses microcosm experiments to investigate how the impact of bioturbation (by Diptera, Chironomidae larvae) on lake sediment respiration changes when temperatures increase. While at 5°C, respiration in sediments with and without chironomids did not differ, at 30°C sediment respiration in microcosms with 2000 chironomids per m 2 was 4.9 times higher than in uninhabited sediments. Our results indicate that lake water temperature increases could significantly enhance lake sediment respiration, which allows us to better understand seasonal changes in lake respiration and carbon metabolism as well as the potential impacts of global warming.

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (10) ◽  
pp. e1600492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Danovaro ◽  
Antonio Dell’Anno ◽  
Cinzia Corinaldesi ◽  
Eugenio Rastelli ◽  
Ricardo Cavicchioli ◽  
...  

Viruses are the most abundant biological entities in the world’s oceans, and they play a crucial role in global biogeochemical cycles. In deep-sea ecosystems, archaea and bacteria drive major nutrient cycles, and viruses are largely responsible for their mortality, thereby exerting important controls on microbial dynamics. However, the relative impact of viruses on archaea compared to bacteria is unknown, limiting our understanding of the factors controlling the functioning of marine systems at a global scale. We evaluate the selectivity of viral infections by using several independent approaches, including an innovative molecular method based on the quantification of archaeal versus bacterial genes released by viral lysis. We provide evidence that, in all oceanic surface sediments (from 1000- to 10,000-m water depth), the impact of viral infection is higher on archaea than on bacteria. We also found that, within deep-sea benthic archaea, the impact of viruses was mainly directed at members of specific clades of Marine Group I Thaumarchaeota. Although archaea represent, on average, ~12% of the total cell abundance in the top 50 cm of sediment, virus-induced lysis of archaea accounts for up to one-third of the total microbial biomass killed, resulting in the release of ~0.3 to 0.5 gigatons of carbon per year globally. Our results indicate that viral infection represents a key mechanism controlling the turnover of archaea in surface deep-sea sediments. We conclude that interactions between archaea and their viruses might play a profound, previously underestimated role in the functioning of deep-sea ecosystems and in global biogeochemical cycles.


Author(s):  
Vanessa A. Garayburu-Caruso ◽  
James C. Stegen ◽  
Hyun-Seob Song ◽  
Lupita Renteria ◽  
Jaqueline Wells ◽  
...  

AbstractOrganic matter (OM) metabolism in freshwater ecosystems is a critical source of uncertainty in global biogeochemical cycles, yet aquatic OM cycling remains poorly understood. Here, we present the first work to explicitly test OM thermodynamics as a key regulator of aerobic respiration, challenging long-held beliefs that organic carbon and oxygen concentrations are the primary determinants of respiration rates. We pair controlled microcosm experiments with ultrahigh-resolution OM characterization to demonstrate a clear relationship between OM thermodynamic favorability and aerobic respiration under carbon limitation. We also demonstrate a shift in the regulation of aerobic respiration from OM thermodynamics to nitrogen content when carbon is in excess, highlighting a central role for OM thermodynamics in aquatic biogeochemical cycling particularly in carbon-limited ecosystems. Our work therefore illuminates a structural gap in aquatic biogeochemical models and presents a new paradigm in which OM thermodynamics and nitrogen content interactively govern aerobic respiration.


Author(s):  
Tim Lenton

How does the Earth system support such a flourishing of life? A habitable climate and water are essential, but organisms also need energy and materials out of which to build their bodies. The Sun provides a plentiful supply of energy, which drives the water cycle and fuels the biosphere, via photosynthesis. However, due to an almost closed system, all the elements needed by life must be efficiently recycled within the Earth system, which then need energy to transform materials chemically and to move them physically around the planet. ‘Recycling’ introduces the life-sustaining global biogeochemical cycles of matter between the biosphere, atmosphere, ocean, land, and crust.


Eos ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zongbo Shi ◽  
Ross Herbert

Aerosol Impacts on Global Biogeochemical Cycles; Leeds, United Kingdom, 8 July 2015


1962 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 415-418
Author(s):  
K. P. Stanyukovich ◽  
V. A. Bronshten

The phenomena accompanying the impact of large meteorites on the surface of the Moon or of the Earth can be examined on the basis of the theory of explosive phenomena if we assume that, instead of an exploding meteorite moving inside the rock, we have an explosive charge (equivalent in energy), situated at a certain distance under the surface.


2010 ◽  
Vol 80 (45) ◽  
pp. 319-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allyson A. West ◽  
Marie A. Caudill

Folate and choline are water-soluble micronutrients that serve as methyl donors in the conversion of homocysteine to methionine. Inadequacy of these nutrients can disturb one-carbon metabolism as evidenced by alterations in circulating folate and/or plasma homocysteine. Among common genetic variants that reside in genes regulating folate absorptive and metabolic processes, homozygosity for the MTHFR 677C > T variant has consistently been shown to have robust effects on status markers. This paper will review the impact of genetic variants in folate-metabolizing genes on folate and choline bioefficacy. Nutrient-gene and gene-gene interactions will be considered along with the need to account for these genetic variants when updating dietary folate and choline recommendations.


Author(s):  
Han Dolman

This book describes the interaction of the main biogeochemical cycles of the Earth and the physics of climate. It takes the perspective of Earth as an integrated system and provides examples of both changes in the current climate and those in the geological past. The first three chapters offer a general introduction to the context of the book, outlining the climate system as a complex interplay between biogeochemistry and physics and describing the tools available for understanding climate: observations and models. These chapters describe the basics of the system, the rates and magnitudes and the crucial aspects of biogeochemical cycles needed to understand their functioning. The second part of the book consists of four chapters that describe the physics required to understand the interaction of the climate with biogeochemistry and change. These chapters describe the physics of radiation, and that of the atmosphere, ocean circulation and thermodynamics. The interaction of aerosols with radiation and clouds is addressed in an additional chapter. The third part of the book deals with Earth’s (bio)geochemical cycles. These chapters focus on the stocks and fluxes of the main reservoirs of Earth’s biogeochemical cycles—atmosphere, land and ocean—and their role in the cycles of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, iron, phosphorus, oxygen, sulphur and water, as well as their interactions with climate. The final two chapters describe possible mitigation and adaptation actions, in relation to recent climate agreements, but always with an emphasis on the biogeochemical aspects.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Caroline M. Plugge ◽  
Diana Z. Sousa

Anaerobic microorganisms, Bacteria and Archaea, have an essential role in global biogeochemical cycles [...]


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Isabel Arce ◽  
Mia M. Bengtsson ◽  
Daniel von Schiller ◽  
Dominik Zak ◽  
Jana Täumer ◽  
...  

AbstractDroughts are recognized to impact global biogeochemical cycles. However, the implication of desiccation on in-stream carbon (C) cycling is not well understood yet. We subjected sediments from a lowland, organic rich intermittent stream to experimental desiccation over a 9-week-period to investigate temporal changes in microbial functional traits in relation to their redox requirements, carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) fluxes and water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC). Concurrently, the implications of rewetting by simulated short rainfalls (4 and 21 mm) on gaseous C fluxes were tested. Early desiccation triggered dynamic fluxes of CO2 and CH4 with peak values of 383 and 30 mg C m−2 h−1 (mean ± SD), respectively, likely in response to enhanced aerobic mineralization and accelerated evasion. At longer desiccation, CH4 dropped abruptly, likely because of reduced abundance of anaerobic microbial traits. The CO2 fluxes ceased later, suggesting aerobic activity was constrained only by extended desiccation over time. We found that rainfall boosted fluxes of CO2, which were modulated by rainfall size and the preceding desiccation time. Desiccation also reduced the amount of WSOC and the proportion of labile compounds leaching from sediment. It remains questionable to which extent changes of the sediment C pool are influenced by respiration processes, microbial C uptake and cell lysis due to drying-rewetting cycles. We highlight that the severity of the dry period, which is controlled by its duration and the presence of precipitation events, needs detailed consideration to estimate the impact of intermittent flow on global riverine C fluxes.


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