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Distribution of denitrifying bacterial communities in the stratified water column and sediment–water interface in two freshwater lakes and the Baltic Sea

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Abstract

We have studied the distribution and community composition of denitrifying bacteria in the stratified water column and at the sediment–water interface in lakes Plußsee and Schöhsee, and a near-shore site in the Baltic Sea in Germany. Although environmental changes induced by the stratification of the water column in marine environments are known to affect specific populations of denitrifying bacteria, little information is available for stratified freshwater lakes and brackish water. The aim of the present study was to fill this gap and to demonstrate specific distribution patterns of denitrifying bacteria in specific aquatic habitats using two functional markers for the nitrite reductase (nirK and nirS genes) as a proxy for the communities. The leading question to be answered was whether communities containing the genes nirK and nirS have similar, identical, or different distribution patterns, and occupy the same or different ecological niches. The genes nirK and nirS were analyzed by PCR amplification with specific primers followed by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) and by cloning and sequence analysis. Overall, nirS-denitrifiers were more diverse than nirK-denitrifiers. Denitrifying communities in sediments were clearly different from those in the water column in all aquatic systems, regardless of the gene analyzed. A differential distribution of denitrifying assemblages was observed for each particular site. In the Baltic Sea and Lake Plußsee, nirK-denitrifiers were more diverse throughout the water column, while nirS-denitrifiers were more diverse in the sediment. In Lake Schöhsee, nirS-denitrifiers showed high diversity across the whole water body. Habitat-specific clusters of nirS sequences were observed for the freshwater lakes, while nirK sequences from both freshwater lakes and the Baltic Sea were found in common phylogenetic clusters. These results demonstrated differences in the distribution of bacteria containing nirS and those containing nirK indicating that both types of denitrifiers apparently occupy different ecological niches.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biological Sciences and Institute of Microbiology, Seoul National University, 56-1 Shillim-dong, Kwanak-gu, Seoul, 151-742, Republic of Korea

    Ok-Sun Kim

  2. Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Biology, 24306, Plön, Germany

    Ok-Sun Kim & Karl-Paul Witzel

  3. Leibniz-Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of Kiel, 24148, Kiel, Germany

    Johannes F. Imhoff

  4. Laboratory of Microbial Ecology, Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, PO box 158, 2009, Neuchâtel, Switzerland

    Pilar Junier

  5. Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Pilar Junier

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  1. Ok-Sun Kim
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  2. Johannes F. Imhoff
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  3. Karl-Paul Witzel
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  4. Pilar Junier
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Correspondence to Pilar Junier.

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Handling Editor: Piet Spaak.

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Kim, OS., Imhoff, J.F., Witzel, KP. et al. Distribution of denitrifying bacterial communities in the stratified water column and sediment–water interface in two freshwater lakes and the Baltic Sea. Aquat Ecol 45, 99–112 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10452-010-9335-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10452-010-9335-7

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