COMMENTARY Microbial diversity and the lability of dissolved organic carbon Craig E. Nelsona,1 and Emma K. Wearb aCenter for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education, Department of Oceanography and Sea Grant College Program, University of HawaiʻiatManoa, Honolulu, HI 96822; and bMarine Science Institute and Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 Marine metagenomics is steadily unveiling a larger semilabile pool is removed seasonally the phylogenetic diversity and metabolic po- (SLDOC), and multiple refractory pools are re- tential of the microbial plankton. Our aware- moved slowly at scales ranging from years to ness that planktonic Bacteria and Archaea millenia. Observable LDOC is a small portion (bacterioplankton) dominate this diversity only of bulk DOC (typically <2%) (2) because this underscores our inability to answer a basic ecol- pool is rapidly metabolized, with bacteria esti- ogical question: what are bacterioplankton mated to consume roughly 50% of net primary eating? The majority of these organisms de- production on a daily basis (7). The concentra- compose organic matter either as a source of tions of various reactivity pools vary widely; in electrons or carbon (often both) and are some oligotrophic systems, the tight coupling classified as chemoheterotrophic (like animals of production and consumption maintains and fungi). However, our understanding of the LDOC stocks below limits of detection, whereas pool of organic compounds in nature remains thedynamicsofSLDOCaremeasurableand largely amorphous, stymied by the challenges seasonally predictable (8, 9). In more eutrophic of resolving the chemical complexity of these areas, such as upwelling coastal habitats, the heterogenous mixtures (1).Atthesametime, spatial and temporal heterogeneity of bulk resolving these linkages is relevant to the global DOC concentrations, reactive fractions, and Fig. 1. Spatial and temporal heterogeneity in coastal carbon cycle: bacterioplankton are the primary microbial responses can be large and dynamic DOC quantity and quality (A), the growth rates of total conduit for the massive pool of dissolved or- at both diurnal and seasonal scales (Fig. 1) (10). bacterioplankton (B) and enrichment of Alteromonadaceae ganic carbon (DOC) in aquatic ecosystems. In contrast, we intuit that lability is not an (C) in 20 independent dilution culture incubations. Each x axis tick represents 1 of 20 independent dilution culture incuba- Despite steady advances in our understanding inherent characteristic of DOC but rather a tions initiated May 11–14, 2011 from a spatial grid spanning of the quantity and quality of marine DOC and continuous function of the interaction be- the surface waters of the Santa Barbara Channel, CA. Alter- how they vary in space and time (2), our ability tween chemical composition and the meta- omonadaceae grew rapidly in most incubations, and both to directly link diverse heterotrophic microbes bolic capacity of the microbial community in ambient (mean 3.5%) and 3-d (mean 11.5%) relative abun- dances of Alteromonadaceae were relatively stable across to their (presumably) diverse organic resources a given environment. The empirical founda- a wide range of DOC reactivities. DOC is colored according remainslimited.Thisinteractionregulatesboth tionsofthisDOClabilitycontinuumare to reactivity pools to visualize removal over 1 (LDOC) and the recycling of DOC to higher trophic levels limited: our strongest evidence comes from 10 wk (SLDOC) (A). Bacterial growth and specific growth (the microbial loop) and the remineralization observations that DOC persistent at one geo- rates are calculated from 5-d log-phase growth curves measured via flow cytometry (B). Alteromonadaceae of DOC to inorganic constituents, primarily graphical location or depth can be consumed relative abundances are calculated from classification of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. at another (11). For example, incubating sea- 16S rRNA gene pyrosequenced amplicons by the SILVA In PNAS, Pedler et al. (3) present the results sonally accumulated DOC and microbes from database (C). DOC and bacterial concentrations are aver- of a study demonstrating that a single bacterial the surface waters of the Sargasso Sea yields no ages of duplicate incubations; 16S amplicons were gen- isolate is capable of removing an ecologically significant change over weeks, but significant erated from a pooled sample. relevant pool of ambient DOC, contributing removal occurs when that water is inoculated significantly to the growing body of work link- with microbes (and available nutrients) from community interactions with observational ing community structure and organic matter the deeper mesopelagic waters (9). This data on DOC reactivity. lability (4–6). matches field observations of open ocean Pedler et al. (3) contribute to integrating What is labile DOC, and what is the re- regions where seasonal mixing occurs, with these two complementary conceptualizations mainderoftheDOCifnotlabile?Thecurrent surface-accumulated DOC becoming bioavail- of DOC lability. They compare DOC consump- geochemical conceptualization of DOC divides able once exposed to the mesopelagic microbial tion in coastal Southern California seawater bulk concentrations into observed reactivity community and associated nutrient field (8, 12). classes for the purposes of more accurately There is a clear need for more experimental Author contributions: C.E.N. and E.K.W. wrote the paper. modeling global nutrient cycles (2). In most studies resolving interactions between specific The authors declare no conflict of interest. areas of the global ocean, the pool of labile components of ambient DOC and specific See companion article on page 7202. material comprises compounds rapidly metab- members of the microbial community that me- 1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: craig. olized on the order of hours to days (LDOC); tabolize it; it remains difficult to link microbial [email protected]. 7166–7167 | PNAS | May 20, 2014 | vol. 111 | no. 20 www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1405751111 Downloaded by guest on October 3, 2021 in bottles inoculated either with a complex am- However, Pedler et al. (3) present a second diversity, and presumably corresponding COMMENTARY bient microbial community or a single bacterial stimulating observation: in continuing to mon- metabolic diversity, should facilitate the strain cultured from these waters. The quantity itor one set of their incubations for a year, they consumption of a broad array of compounds of DOC removed by the ambient microbial show that after the first 3 d, bottles inoculated agrees with theories of niche complementarity community in the first 5 d (operationally inter- only with the cultured isolate ceased to remove and experimental validations of the inter- preted as LDOC) was matched by the lone iso- DOC (although the cells remained viable), actions between phylogenetic diversity and the late, a Gammaproteobacteria in the family whereas the ambient communities continued dynamics of resource supply and removal in Alteromonadaceae. This result serves as an marine bacterioplankton (16–18). explicit experimental validation of a widely re- Pedler et al. present The questions raised by this study and others ported observation thatincubatingseawater the results of a study touch on the forces shaping diversity in the containing measurable LDOC (i.e., exhibiting demonstrating that bacterioplankton. When faced with the inexpli- resolvable DOC drawdown on the order of cable diversity of photoautotrophic plankton, days) fosters the rapid enrichment of ambi- a single bacterial isolate all of which ostensibly persisted on a simple diet “ ” ently rare opportunistic copiotrophs, which is capable of removing ofsunlight,water,carbondioxide,andanarrow are generally members of the family Alter- an ecologically relevant suite of mineral nutrients, Hutchinson coined omonadaceae (and allied Gammaproteobac- the “Paradox of the Plankton” (19), codifying teria within a monophyletic clade including pool of ambient DOC. a concept that has stimulated decades of advan- Psuedoalteromonadaceae, Idiomarinaceae, and ces in ecological theories on the interplay be- C to remove DOC (at a steadily slowing pace, Vibrionaceae) (Fig. 1 ) (5, 6, 9, 13, 14). The ∼ tween diversity and resource utilization. An copiotrophic response is commonly observed eventually removing 20% over 12 mo). In contrast to the implications of the short-term analogous paradox is not a prominent part of in even unamended dilution incubations, with the discussion surrounding the current explo- a handful of taxa exhibiting a consistently large incubations, this portion of the experiment agrees with previous observations (9) that sion of culture-independent discovery of Bacte- enrichment independent of natural variability rial and Archaeal diversity, but perhaps it in the quantity of labile DOC and bulk bacter- additional members of the community are required to remineralize more recalcitrant should be. Our implicit assumption is that the ioplankton community response (Fig. 1). phylogenetic diversity of microbes in soils and This opportunistic growth suggests a ca- fractions of the accumulated pool (that which seas is maintained primarily by metabolic niche pacity of copiotrophs to use heterogenous turnsoveronthescalesofweekstomonths). specialization of bacterioplankton on the di- resource pools, but because they often emerge Genomic and experimental