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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 2009, p. 7173-7181, Vol. 75, No. 22
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.01374-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Comparison of Bacterioneuston and Bacterioplankton Dynamics during a Phytoplankton Bloom in a Fjord Mesocosm{triangledown}

Michael Cunliffe,1 Andrew S. Whiteley,2 Lindsay Newbold,2 Anna Oliver,2 Hendrik Schäfer,3 and J. Colin Murrell1*

Department of Biological Sciences, University of Warwick, Gibbet Hill Road, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom,1 Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3SR, United Kingdom,2 Warwick HRI, University of Warwick, Wellesbourne CV35 9EF, United Kingdom3

Received 12 June 2009/ Accepted 18 September 2009

The bacterioneuston is the community of Bacteria present in surface microlayers, the thin surface film that forms the interface between aquatic environments and the atmosphere. In this study we compared bacterial cell abundances and bacterial community structures of the bacterioneuston and the bacterioplankton (from the subsurface water column) during a phytoplankton bloom mesocosm experiment. Bacterial cell abundance, determined by flow cytometry, followed a typical bacterioplankton response to a phytoplankton bloom, with Synechococcus and high-nucleic acid content (HNA) bacterial cell numbers initially falling, probably due to selective protist grazing. Subsequently HNA and low-nucleic acid content bacterial cells increased in abundance, but Synechococcus cells did not. There was no significant difference between bacterioneuston and bacterioplankton cell abundances during the experiment. Conversely, distinct and consistent differences between the bacterioneuston and the bacterioplankton community structures were observed. This was monitored simultaneously by Bacteria 16S rRNA gene terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis. The conserved patterns of community structure observed in all of the mesocosms indicate that the bacterioneuston is distinctive and nonrandom.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Warwick, Gibbet Hill Road, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom. Phone: 44 24 7652 3553. Fax: 44 24 7652 3568. E-mail: j.c.murrell{at}warwick.ac.uk

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 25 September 2009.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 2009, p. 7173-7181, Vol. 75, No. 22
0099-2240/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.01374-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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