Aggregation and Degradation of Dispersants and Oil by Microbial Exopolymers (ADDOMEx): Toward a Synthesis of Processes and Pathways of Marine Oil Snow Formation in Determining the Fate of Hydrocarbons

Microbes (bacteria, phytoplankton) in the ocean are responsible for the copious production of exopolymeric substances (EPS) that include transparent exopolymeric particles. These materials act as a matrix to form marine snow. After the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, marine oil snow (MOS) formed in massive quantities and influenced the fate and transport of oil in the ocean. The processes and pathways of MOS formation require further elucidation to be better understood, in particular we need to better understand how dispersants affect aggregation and degradation of oil. Toward that end, recent work has characterized EPS as a function of microbial community and environmental conditions. We present a conceptual model that incorporates recent findings in our understanding of the driving forces of MOS sedimentation and flocculent accumulation (MOSSFA) including factors that influence the scavenging of oil into MOS and the routes that promote decomposition of the oil post MOS formation. In particular, the model incorporates advances in our understanding of processes that control interactions between oil, dispersant, and EPS in producing either MOS that can sink or dispersed gels promoting microbial degradation of oil compounds. A critical element is the role of protein to carbohydrate ratios (P/C ratios) of EPS in the aggregation process of colloid and particle formation. The P/C ratio of EPS provides a chemical basis for the “stickiness” factor that is used in analytical or numerical simulations of the aggregation process. This factor also provides a relative measure for the strength of attachment of EPS to particle surfaces. Results from recent laboratory experiments demonstrate (i) the rapid formation of microbial assemblages, including their EPS, on oil droplets that is enhanced in the presence of Corexit-dispersed oil, and (ii) the subsequent rapid oil oxidation and microbial degradation in water. These findings, combined with the conceptual model, further improve our understanding of the fate of the sinking MOS (e.g., subsequent sedimentation and preservation/degradation) and expand our ability to predict the behavior and transport of spilled oil in the ocean, and the potential effects of Corexit application, specifically with respect to MOS processes (i.e., formation, fate, and half-lives) and Marine Oil Snow Sedimentation and Flocculent Accumulation.

Quorum Sensing Regulates ‘swim-or-stick’ Lifestyle in the Phycosphere

Originality-significance statementMotility and biofilm formation are processes regulated by quorum sensing (QS) in bacteria. Both functions are believed to play an important role in interactions between bacteria and phytoplankton. Here, we show that two bacterial symbionts from the microbial community associated with a ubiquitous diatom switch their motile lifestyle to attached cells while an opportunist bacterium from the same community is incapable of attachment, despite possessing the genetic machinery to do so. Further work indicated that the opportunist lacks QS signal synthases while the symbionts produce three QS signals, one of which is mainly responsible for regulating symbiont colonization of the diatom microenvironment. These findings suggest that QS regulates colonization of diatom surfaces and further work on these model systems will inform our understanding of particle aggregation and bacterial attachment to marine snow and how these processes influence the global carbon cycle.SummaryInteractions between phytoplankton and bacteria play major roles in global biogeochemical cycles and oceanic nutrient fluxes. These interactions occur in the microenvironment surrounding phytoplankton cells, known as the phycosphere. Bacteria in the phycosphere use either chemotaxis or attachment to benefit from algal excretions. Both processes are regulated by quorum sensing (QS), a cell-cell signaling mechanism that uses small infochemicals to coordinate bacterial gene expression. However, the role of QS in regulating bacterial attachment in the phycosphere is not clear. Here, we isolated a Sulfitobacter pseudonitzschiae F5 and a Phaeobacter sp. F10 belonging to the marine Roseobacter group and an Alteromonas macleodii F12 belonging to Alteromonadaceae, from the microbial community of the ubiquitous diatom Asterionellopsis glacialis. We show that only the Roseobacter group isolates (diatom symbionts) can attach to diatom transparent exopolymeric particles. Despite all three bacteria possessing genes involved in motility, chemotaxis, and attachment, only S. pseudonitzschiae F5 and Phaeobacter sp. F10 possessed complete QS systems and could synthesize QS signals. Using UHPLC-MS/MS, we identified three QS molecules produced by both bacteria of which only 3-oxo-C16:1-HSL strongly inhibited bacterial motility and stimulated attachment in the phycosphere. These findings suggest that QS signals enable colonization of the phycosphere by algal symbionts.

Composition and Vertical Flux of Particulate Organic Matter to the Oxygen Minimum Zone of the Central Baltic Sea: Impact of a sporadic North Sea inflow

Sinking particles are the main form to transport photosynthetically fixed carbon from the euphotic zone to the ocean interior. Oxygen (O2) depletion may improve the efficiency of the biological carbon pump. However, how the lack of O2 mechanistically enhances particulate organic matter (POM) fluxes is not well understood. In the Baltic Sea, the Gotland Basin (GB) and the Landsort Deep (LD) exhibit permanent bottom-water hypoxia, this is on occasions alleviated by Major Baltic Inflow (MBI), such as the one that occurred in 2014/2015 which oxygenated the bottom waters of the GB (but not of the LD). Here, we investigate the distribution and fluxes of POM in the GB and the LD in June 2015 and how they were affected by the 2015 MBI. Fluxes and composition of sinking particles were different in the GB and the LD. In the GB, POC flux was 18 % lower at 40 m than at 180 m. Particulate nitrogen (PN) and Coomassie stainable particles (CSP) fluxes decreased with depth, and particulate organic phosphorous (POP), biogenic silicate (BSi), Chl a, and transparent exopolymeric particles (TEP) clearly peaked within the core of the oxygen minimum zone (OMZ), which coincided with a high flux of manganese oxide (MnOx)-like particles. Contrastingly, in the LD, POC, PN, and CSP fluxes decreased 28, 42 and 56 % respectively from 40 to 180 m. POP, BSi, and TEP fluxes, however, did not decrease with depth and only a slightly higher flux was measured at 110 m. MnOx-like particle flux was two orders of magnitude higher in the GB relative to the LD. MnOx-like particles formed after the inflow of oxygenated water into the deep GB may form aggregates with POM. Our results suggest, that when the deep waters of GB were oxygenated (2014/2015 North Sea inflow), not only transparent exopolymeric particles, as indicated previously, but also POC, POP, BSi, and Chl a may bind to MnOx-like particles. POM associated with MnOx-like particles may accumulate in the redoxcline, where they formed larger particles that eventually sank to the seafloor. We propose that this mechanism would alter the vertical distribution and the flux of POM, and it may contribute to the higher transfer efficiency of POC in the GB. This is consistent with the fact that the OM reaching the seafloor was fresher and less degraded in the GB than in the LD.