Drivers of protistan community autotrophy and heterotrophy in chemically stratified Antarctic lakes

AME Aquatic Microbial Ecology Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsSpecials AME 82:225-239 (2019) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/ame01891 Drivers of protistan community autotrophy and heterotrophy in chemically stratified Antarctic lakes Wei Li1,*, Jenna Dolhi-Binder2, Zev E. Cariani3, Rachael M. Morgan-Kiss3 1Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences, Montana State University, 334 Leon Johnson Hall, Bozeman, Montana 59717, USA 2Department of Biology and Toxicology, Ashland University, Ashland, Ohio 44805, USA 3Department of Microbiology, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056, USA *Corresponding author: wei.li02@montana.edu ABSTRACT: Single-celled, eukaryotic microorganisms, known as protists, are responsible for 2 important, yet opposing, metabolic activities within aquatic food webs. They are major primary producers and highly active predators in marine and fresh water systems. While genomics has accelerated in recent years for this taxonomically diverse group, our understanding of the metabolic capabilities of most protists remains limited. It is also poorly understood how protist trophic mode is affected by biotic and abiotic factors, and therefore it is difficult to predict how events such as global climate change will affect the balance between autotrophic and heterotrophic activities in protist communities. To address open questions regarding how protist metabolic versatility is influenced by their environment, we characterized the potential for carbon fixation versus organic carbon degradation using enzymatic assays (RubisCO and β-D-glucosaminidase, respectively) within the water columns of ice-covered lakes in McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV), Antarctica. Steep physical and chemical gradients in the water columns, microorganism domination and minimal allochthonous inputs makes the MDV lakes uniquely suited to investigate environment-microbe interactions. Spatial trends in RubisCO and β-D-glucosaminidase activities were lake-specific and vertically stratified within the water columns. Moreover, bottom-up drivers controlling the activity of C-fixation vs. organic C-degradation among the MDV protist communities were distinct between the upper photic vs. the deep, aphotic zones. We conclude that differential controls over major C-cycling enzymes have important implications on the influence of environmental change on the carbon and nutrient cycles in the MDV lakes. KEY WORDS: Aquatic protists · Autotrophy · Heterotrophy · β-D-glucosaminidase · RubisCO · McMurdo Dry Valleys · Antarctic lakes Full text in pdf format Supplementary material NextCite this article as: Li W, Dolhi-Binder J, Cariani ZE, Morgan-Kiss RM (2019) Drivers of protistan community autotrophy and heterotrophy in chemically stratified Antarctic lakes. Aquat Microb Ecol 82:225-239. https://doi.org/10.3354/ame01891 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in AME Vol. 82, No. 3. Online publication date: January 21, 2019 Print ISSN: 0948-3055; Online ISSN: 1616-1564 Copyright © 2019 Inter-Research.