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Responses of Bacterial Assemblages on Standing‐Decaying Blades of Smooth Cordgrass to Additions of Water and Nitrogen
Author(s) -
Newell Steven Y.,
Palm Laura A.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
international review of hydrobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.524
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1522-2632
pISSN - 1434-2944
DOI - 10.1002/iroh.19980830202
Subject(s) - spartina alterniflora , epiphyte , nitrogen , desiccation , biology , water column , zoology , botany , ecology , chemistry , marsh , wetland , organic chemistry
Plots of intermediate‐height cordgrass ( Spartina alterniflora ) were fertilized with nitrogen, misted with freshwater, given both misting and N, or left untreated. Bacterial responses on standing‐decaying leaf blades were measured as changes in epiphytic mass, rates of shedding of bacterial cells into seawater, and rates of net growth on blades. Epiphytic mass rose with time, and it did so 6‐fold more sharply for the combination of fertilization and misting than for control. Since the sediment surface would offer higher N and water availability, this may indicate that movement of leaf material to marsh sediments would strongly favor bacterial activity. Net growth on aerially incubated (15 h), wet blades as percentage of standing bacterial mass was unchanging with duration of decay period, but was affected by treatment (about 0 to +5% h −1 for misted treatments, +15% h −1 for unmisted treatments). Faster growth on newly wetted, unmisted blades may have been due to release of cells from growth limitation by desiccation. Plot treatment did not affect specific rate of bacterial shedding (about 8% of standing bacterial epiphytic mass during one h of submergence at 4 weeks, and 149% h −1 at 12 weeks). It may be that during high spring tides, bacterial shedding from standing‐decaying blades could provide numbers of new cells in the water column near to or greater than those provided by division of bacterioplanktonic cells.