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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, May 2008, p. 3014-3021, Vol. 74, No. 10
0099-2240/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.01809-07
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Biome-Level Biogeography of Streambed Microbiota{triangledown}

Robert H. Findlay,1* Christine Yeates,1,{dagger} Meredith A. J. Hullar,2,{ddagger} David A. Stahl,2 and Louis A. Kaplan3

Department of Microbiology, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056,1 Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98108,2 Stroud Water Research Center, Avondale, Pennsylvania 193113

Received 3 August 2007/ Accepted 20 March 2008

A field study was conducted to determine the microbial community structures of streambed sediments across diverse geographic and climatic areas. Sediment samples were collected from three adjacent headwater forest streams within three biomes, eastern deciduous (Pennsylvania), southeastern coniferous (New Jersey), and tropical evergreen (Guanacaste, Costa Rica), to assess whether there is biome control of stream microbial community structure. Bacterial abundance, microbial biomass, and bacterial and microbial community structures were determined using classical, biochemical, and molecular methods. Microbial biomass, determined using phospholipid phosphate, was significantly greater in the southeastern coniferous biome, likely due to the smaller grain size, higher organic content, and lower levels of physical disturbance of these sediments. Microbial community structure was determined using phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) profiles and bacterial community structure from terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism and edited (microeukaryotic PLFAs removed) PLFA profiles. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to investigate patterns in total microbial community structure. The first principal component separated streams based on the importance of phototrophic microeukaryotes within the community, while the second separated southeastern coniferous streams from all others based on increased abundance of fungal PLFAs. PCA also indicated that within- and among-stream variations were small for tropical evergreen streams and large for southeastern coniferous streams. A similar analysis of bacterial community structure indicated that streams within biomes had similar community structures, while each biome possessed a unique streambed community, indicating strong within-biome control of stream bacterial community structure.

* Corresponding author. Present address: A229 Bevill Building, Box 870206, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487. Phone: (205) 348-4167. Fax: (513) 529-2431. E-mail: rfindlay{at}biology.as.ua.edu

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 31 March 2008.

{dagger} Present address: Department of Natural Resources and Water, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia.

{ddagger} Present address: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA 98112.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, May 2008, p. 3014-3021, Vol. 74, No. 10
0099-2240/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.01809-07
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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