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Freshwater ice as habitat: partitioning of phytoplankton and bacteria between ice and water in central E uropean reservoirs
Author(s) -
McKay Robert M.L.,
Prášil Ondrej,
Pechar Libor,
Lawrenz Evelyn,
Rozmarynowycz Mark J.,
Bullerjahn George S.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
environmental microbiology reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.229
H-Index - 69
ISSN - 1758-2229
DOI - 10.1111/1758-2229.12322
Subject(s) - phytoplankton , bacterioplankton , phototroph , proteobacteria , bacteroidetes , biology , ecology , cyanobacteria , dominance (genetics) , unifrac , botany , oceanography , environmental science , bacteria , 16s ribosomal rna , photosynthesis , nutrient , geology , biochemistry , genetics , gene
Summary Abundant phytoplankton and bacteria were identified by high‐throughput 16 S r RNA tag Illumina sequencing of samples from water and ice phases collected during winter at commercial fish ponds and a sand pit lake within the UNESCO T řeboň B asin B iosphere R eserve, C zech R epublic. Bacterial reads were dominated by P roteobacteria and B acteroidetes . Despite dominance by members of just two phyla, U ni F rac principal coordinates analysis of the bacterial community separated the water community of K lec fish pond, as well as the ice‐associated community of K lec‐ S and P it from other samples. Both phytoplankton and cyanobacteria were represented with hundreds of sequence reads per sample, a finding corroborated by microscopy. In particular, ice from K lec‐ S and P it contained high contributions from photoautotrophs accounting for 25% of total reads with reads dominated by single operational taxonomic units ( OTUs ) of the cyanobacterium P lanktothrix sp. and two filamentous diatoms. Dominant OTUs recovered from ice were largely absent (< 0.01%) from underlying water suggestive of low floristic similarity of phytoplankton partitioned between these phases. Photosynthetic characterization of phototrophs resident in water and ice analysed by variable chlorophyll a fluorescence showed that communities from both phases were photosynthetically active, thus supporting ice as viable habitat for phytoplankton in freshwater lakes and reservoirs.