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. 2020 Mar 13;10(1):4682.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-61446-9.

Bubble-mediated transport of benthic microorganisms into the water column: Identification of methanotrophs and implication of seepage intensity on transport efficiency

Sebastian F A Jordan  1 , Tina Treude  2 , Ira Leifer  3 , René Janßen  4 , Johannes Werner  4 , Heide Schulz-Vogt  4 , Oliver Schmale  5
Affiliations

Bubble-mediated transport of benthic microorganisms into the water column: Identification of methanotrophs and implication of seepage intensity on transport efficiency

Sebastian F A Jordan et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Benthic microorganisms transported into the water column potentially influence biogeochemical cycles and the pelagic food web structure. In the present study six gas-releasing vent sites in the Coal Oil Point seep field (California) were investigated, and the dislocation of microorganisms from the sediment into the water column via gas bubbles released from the seabed was documented. It was found that the methanotrophs transport efficiency was dependent on the volumetric gas flow, with the highest transport rate of 22.7 × 103 cells mLgas-1 at a volumetric gas flow of 0.07 mLgas s-1, and the lowest rate of 0.2 × 103 cells mLgas-1 at a gas flow of 2.2 mLgas s-1. A simple budget approach showed that this bubble-mediated transport has the potential to maintain a relevant part of the water-column methanotrophs in the seep field. The bubble-mediated link between the benthic and pelagic environment was further supported by genetic analyses, indicating a transportation of methanotrophs of the family Methylomonaceae and oil degrading bacteria of the genus Cycloclasticus from the sediment into the water column. These findings demonstrate that the bubble-mediated transport of microorganisms influences the pelagic microbial abundance and community composition at gas-releasing seep sites.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic map of vent distribution and density at (a) Rostocker Seep (RS) and (b) the Isla Vista Super Seep (SS). Locations of the Bubble Catcher (BC) vent, engineered, and control experiments are marked. The double line illustrated in (a) represents the two seawater intake pipes (SIP) that transport seawater from further offshore to the University of California, Santa Barbara campus. CorelDRAW 2018 (v. 20.1.0.708) was used to draw these maps.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Depth profiles of parameters determined in the water column (a–c) and in the sediment (d,e) at the Rostocker Seep (triangle) and the IV Super Seep (circles): (a) mean water column methane concentration, (b) mean water column methane oxidation (MOx), (c) abundance of methane-oxidizing bacteria (MOB, open orange symbols) and total cells (black) in the water column, (d) sediment methane concentration, (e) abundance of MOB (open orange symbols) and total cells (filled black) in the sediment. The bars in (a-c) indicate the range of values between three fieldwork days.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Bubble emission size distribution (Φ) for bubbles crossing an arbitrary height above the seabed per second per unit radius (r), for the four Bubble Catcher and BMS studied vents: (a,b) Rostocker Seep, (c,d) IV Super Seep. Emission modes determined by least-squares linear-regressions, fit equations Φ1–11 can be found in the Supplementary Table S3. Also shown is the bubble surface area flux versus r.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Transported total cells (black) and MOB (orange) at Rostocker Seep (triangle) and IV Super Seep (circles) normalized to (a) time and (b) emitted gas as a function of volumetric flow, (c) bubble surface area as a function of emitted surface area, (d) transported cells per square meter and day versus vent density.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Relative abundance of (a) selected 16S rRNA gene sequences (OTUs) assigned to the methanotrophic family Methylomonaceae and (b) selected pmoA sequences (ASVs) in the different sampling groups obtained from the Rostocker Seep and IV Super Seep sites. Note that the OTUs marked in red in (a) had similar distribution patterns at the two seep sites. For taxonomic information on the OTUs and ASVs, see Supplementary Tables S5 and S6, respectively. Data key on figure.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Sonar map of seep bubble intensity in the Coal Oil Point seep field. Adapted from Leifer et al.. Matlab, Mathworks (v. R2008a) was used to create this map.
Figure 7
Figure 7
The Bubble Catcher used in the “BC vent” experiments (right) and in the “BC engineered” experiments (left).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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