Microbial carbon cycling in marine shallow-water hydrothermal systems
Final Report Abstract
Within these so far poorly explored ecosystems, we were able to gain pervasive knowledge especially on: (1) the imprint of environmental parameters on spatial microbial diversity, (2) the importance of dark carbon fixation within these light-exposed shallow water hydrothermal systems, (3) membrane adaptation mechanisms to extreme conditions, (4) the molecular composition of the dissolved organic carbon from the hydrothermal fluids and underlying transformation processes, and (5) first proof of arsenic being released as nanoparticles from shallow water hydrothermal systems. To date, 27 presentations, 8 peer-reviewed publications and one book chapter and six that are close to submission have resulted from this research. The group studied four shallow-water hydrothermal systems, gained insights into their unique geochemistry, and into the diversity, lipid adaptations and function of their microbial communities. We have developed methods to sample hydrothermal sediments and fluids and proved the applicability of stable isotope probing (SIP) for these systems. As a spin-off of this Emmy Noether project, a cruise proposal has just been granted that will investigate hydrothermal systems in the Aegean Sea off Milos in a transect from shallow to deep, in order to remove the arbitrary boundary between these two phenomena and to investigate marine hydrothermal systems as a continuum.
Publications
- 2015. Interaction between iron and dissolved organic matter in a marine shallow hydrothermal system off Dominica Island (Lesser Antilles). Marine Chemistry, 177, Part 4: 677-686
Gomez-Saez, G.V., Riedel, T., Niggemann, J., Pichler, T., Dittmar, T. and Bühring, S.I.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marchem.2015.10.003) - 2015. Organic Cucomplexation at the shallow marine hydrothermal vent fields off the coast of Milos (Greece), Dominica (Lesser Antilles) and the Bay of Plenty (New Zealand). Marine Chemistry, 173: 244-252
Kleint, C., Kuzmanovski, S., Powell, Z., Bühring, S.I., Sander, S.G. and Koschinsky, A.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marchem.2014.10.012) - 2016. Molecular evidence for abiotic sulfurization of dissolved organic matter in marine shallow hydrothermal systems. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 190: 35-52
Gomez-Saez, G.V., Niggemann, J., Dittmar, T., Pohlabeln, A.M., Lang, S.Q., Noowong, A., Pichler, T., Wörmer, L. and Bühring, S.I.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2016.06.027) - 2017. Bacterial Diversity and Biogeochemistry of Two Marine Shallow-Water Hydrothermal Systems off Dominica (Lesser Antilles). Frontiers in Microbiology, 8(2400)
Pop Ristova, P., Pichler, T., Friedrich, M.W. and Bühring, S.I.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2017.02400) - 2017. Heat Stress Dictates Microbial Lipid Composition along a Thermal Gradient in Marine Sediments. Frontiers in Microbiology, 8 (1550)
Sollich, M., Yoshinaga, M.Y., Häusler, S., Price, R.E., Hinrichs, K.-U. and Bühring, S.I.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2017.01550) - 2017. Relative Importance of Chemoautotrophy for Primary Production in a Light Exposed Marine Shallow Hydrothermal System. Frontiers in Microbiology, 8 (702)
Gomez-Saez, G.V., Pop Ristova, P., Sievert, S.M., Elvert, M., Hinrichs, K.-U. and Bühring, S.I.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2017.00702) - 2017. The shallow submarine hot vent system off Milos (Greece) – a natural laboratory to study hydrothermal geomicrobiology In: J. Kallmeyer (Editor), Life at Vents and Seeps (Life in Extreme Environments). De Gruyter
Bühring, S.I. and Sievert, S.M.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110493672-004) - 2019. Amorphous arsenic sulfide nanoparticles in a shallow water hydrothermal system. Marine Chemistry, 211: 25-36
Durán-Toro, V.M., Price, R.E., Maas, M., Brombach, C.C., Pichler, T., Rezwan, K. and Bühring, S.I.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marchem.2019.03.008) - 2019. Substrate characteristic bacterial fatty acid production based on amino acid assimilation and transformation in marine sediments. FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 95(10)
Aepfler, R.F., Bühring, S.I. and Elvert, M.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1093/femsec/fiz131)
