Review status: this discussion paper is a preprint. It has been under review for the journal Biogeosciences (BG). The manuscript was not accepted for further review after discussion.
Alternation of heterotrophic bacterial and archaeal production along nitrogen and salinity gradients in coastal wetlands
Gema L. Batanero1,Andy J. Green2,Juan A. Amat2,Marion Vittecoq3,4,Curtis A. Suttle5,and Isabel Reche1,6Gema L. Batanero et al.Gema L. Batanero1,Andy J. Green2,Juan A. Amat2,Marion Vittecoq3,4,Curtis A. Suttle5,and Isabel Reche1,6
1Departamento de Ecología e Instituto del Agua, Universidad de Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain
2Departamento de Ecología de Humedales, Estación Biológica de Doñana, EBD-CSIC, 41092 Sevilla, Spain
3Tour du Valat, Institut de Recherche pour la Conservation des Zones Humides Méditerranéennes, Arles, 13200, France
4UMR MIVEGEC, IRD, CNRS, Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France
5Departments of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences, Microbiology & Immunology, and Botany, and the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T1Z4, Canada
6Research Unit Modeling Nature (MNat), Universidad de Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain
1Departamento de Ecología e Instituto del Agua, Universidad de Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain
2Departamento de Ecología de Humedales, Estación Biológica de Doñana, EBD-CSIC, 41092 Sevilla, Spain
3Tour du Valat, Institut de Recherche pour la Conservation des Zones Humides Méditerranéennes, Arles, 13200, France
4UMR MIVEGEC, IRD, CNRS, Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France
5Departments of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences, Microbiology & Immunology, and Botany, and the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T1Z4, Canada
6Research Unit Modeling Nature (MNat), Universidad de Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain
Received: 20 Feb 2020 – Accepted for review: 26 Mar 2020 – Discussion started: 03 Apr 2020
Abstract. Coastal wetlands are valuable ecosystems with high biological productivity and diversity, which provide ecosystem services such as a reduction in the inputs of nitrogen into coastal waters, and storage of organic carbon, thus, acting as net carbon sinks. The rise of sea level as a consequence of climatic warming will salinize many coastal wetlands, but there is considerable uncertainty about how salinization will affect microbial communities and biogeochemical processes. We analyzed prokaryotic abundance and heterotrophic bacterial and archaeal production in 112 ponds within nine coastal wetlands from the western Mediterranean coast. We determined the main drivers of prokaryotic abundance and production in these wetlands using generalized linear models (GLMs). The best GLM, including all the coastal wetlands, indicated that the concentration of total dissolved nitrogen (TDN) positively affected the abundance of heterotrophic prokaryotes and heterotrophic archaeal production. In contrast, heterotrophic bacterial production was negatively related to TDN. This negative relationship appeared to be mediated by salinity and virus abundance. Heterotrophic bacterial production declined as salinity, and virus abundance, increased. We observed a switch from heterotrophic bacterial production towards heterotrophic archaeal production as salinity and virus abundance increased. Our results imply that microbial activity will change from bacterial-dominated processes to archaeal-dominated processes along with increases of nitrogen inputs and salinity. However, more studies are required to link the mineralization rates of dissolved nitrogen and organic carbon with specific archaeal taxa, to enable more accurate predictions on future scenarios of wetlands salinization and anthropogenic nitrogen inputs.
Coastal wetlands provide ecosystem services such as a reduction in nitrogen inputs into coastal waters and storage organic carbon. The rise of sea level will salinize many coastal wetlands. Here, we analyzed the abundance of prokaryotes and the heterotrophic production of bacteria and archaea in wetlands from the Mediterranean coast. We observed a switch from bacterial-dominated production to archaeal-dominated production with increases of anthropogenic nitrogen inputs and salinity.
Coastal wetlands provide ecosystem services such as a reduction in nitrogen inputs into coastal...