Abstract
Diurnal variations occurred in bacterial growth rates in the sediment and water column associated with seagrass (mainly Zostera capricorni Aschers) beds in Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia. Studies were carried out in March and June 1981. Cell production rates increased by 5- to 10-fold during the morning and decreased during the afternoon. No nocturnal variation was observed. Daily bacterial cell production rate in the aerobic zones of the seagrass bed was estimated to be 43 mg C m-2. A minimum of 100 mg C m-2 d-1 would be required to support the bacterial production. This represents about 10% of net primary production. The incorporation of tritiated thymidine into DNA was used to measure bacterial growth. The validity of the method is discussed.
Similar content being viewed by others
Literature Cited
Burton, K.: A study of the conditions and mechanism of the diphenylamine reaction for the colorimetric estimation of deoxyribonucleic acid. Biochem. J. 62, 315–323 (1956)
Cooney, W. J. and S. G. Bradley: Action of cycloheximide on animal cells. In: Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy —1961, pp 237–244. Ed. M. Finland and G. M. Savage. Michigan: American Society of Microbiology 1962
Forsdyke, D. R.: Studies of the incorporation of [5-3H] uridine during activation and transformation of lymphocytes induced by phytohaemagglutinin. Biochem. J. 107, 197–205 (1968)
Fuhrman, J. A. and F. Azam: Bacterioplankton secondary production estimates for coastal waters of British Columbia, Antarctica, and California. Appl. envirl Microbiol. 39, 1085–1095 (1980)
Fuhrman, J. A. and F. Azam: Thymidine incorporation as a measure of heterotrophic bacterioplankton production in marine surface waters: evaluation and field results. Mar. Biol. 66, 109–120 (1982)
Hunter, T. and B. Francke: In vitro polyoma DNA synthesis: characterization of a system from infected cells. J. Virology 13, 125–139 (1974)
Jannasch, H. W.: Estimations of bacterial growth rates in natural waters. J. Bact. 99, 156–160 (1969)
Johnson, P. W. and J. McN. Sieburth: Chroococcoid cyanobacteria in the sea: a ubiquitous and diverse phototrophic biomass. Limnol. Oceanogr. 24, 928–935 (1979)
Karl, D. M.: Measurement of microbial activity and growth in the ocean by rates of stable ribonucleic acid synthesis. Appl. envirl Microbiol. 38, 850–860 (1979)
Karl, D. M.: Simultaneous rates of RNA and DNA syntheses for estimating growth and cell division of aquatic microbial communities. Appl. envirl Microbiol. 42, 802–810 (1981)
Karl, D. M., C. D. Winn and D. C. L. Wong: RNA synthesis as a measure of microbial growth in aquatic environments. I. Evaluation, verification and optimization of methods. Mar. Biol. 64, 1–12 (1981)
Meyer-Reil, L.-A.: Autoradiography and epifluorescence microscopy combined for the determination of number and spectrum of actively metabolizing bacteria in natural waters. Appl. envirl Microbiol. 36, 506–512 (1978)
Moriarty, D. J. W.: Quantitative studies on bacteria and algae in the food of the mullet Mugil cephalus L. and the prawn Metapenaeus bennettae (Racek & Dall). J. exp. mar. Biol. Ecol. 22, 131–143 (1976)
Moriarty, D. J. W.: Measurement of bacterial biomass in sandy sediments. In: Biogeochemistry of ancient and modern environments, pp 131–139. Ed. by P. A. Trudinger, M. R. Walter and B. J. Ralph. Caberra: Australian Academy of Science 1980
Moriarty, D. J. W.: Bacterial biomass and productivity in algal mats, sediment and water at Hamelin Pool, Shark Bay. Geomicrobiol. J. (In press a)
Moriarty, D. J. W.: Measurment of bacterial growth rates in marine systems using nucleic acid precursors. In: Heterotrophic activity in the sea, Ed. by J. E. Hobbie and P. J. leB. Williams. New York: Plenum Press (In press b)
Moriarty, D. J. W. and A. C. Hayward: Ultrastructure of bacteria and the proportion of Gram negative bacteria in marine sediments. Microb. Ecol 8, 1–14 (1982)
Moriarty, D. J. W. and P. C. Pollard: DNA synthesis as a measure of bacterial productivity in seagrass sediments. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 5, 151–156 (1981)
Payne, W. J. and W. J. Wiebe: Growth yield and efficiency in chemosynthetic microorganisms. A. Rev. Microbiol. 32, 155–183 (1978)
Penhale, P. A. and W. O. Smith, Jr.: Excretion of dissolved organic carbon by eelgrass (Zostera marina) and its epiphytes. Limnol. Oceanogr 22, 400–407 (1977)
Perkins, F. O., L. W. Haas, D. E. Phillips and K. L. Webb: Ultrastructure of marine Synechococcus possessing spinae. Can. J. Microbiol. 27, 318–329 (1981)
Porter, K. G. and Y. S. Feig: The use of DAPI for identifying and counting aquatic microflora. Limnol. Oceanogr. 25, 943–948 (1980)
Riemann, B. and M. Sondergaard: Bacterial growth in relation to phytoplankton primary production and extracellular release of organic carbon. In: Heterotrophic activity in the sea, Ed. by J. E. Hobbie and P. J. leB. Williams. New York: Plenum Press (In press)
Sheldon, R. W.: Size separation of marine seston by membrane and glass-fibre filters. Limnol. Oceanogr. 17, 494–498 (1972)
Sieburth, J. McN.: Sea microbes, 491 pp. Oxford: University Press 1979
Sieburth, J. McN., K. M. Johnson, C. M. Burney and D. M. Lavoie: Estimation of in situ rates of heterotrophy using diurnal changes in dissolved organic matter and growth rates of picoplankton in diffusion culture. Helgoländer wiss. Meeresunters. 30, 565–574 (1977)
Venkatesan, N.: Mechanism of inhibition of DNA synthesis by cycloheximide in Balb/3T3 cells. Biochim. biophys. Acta 478, 437–453 (1977)
Waterbury, J. B., S. W. Watson, R. R. L. Guillard and L. E. Brand: Widespread occurrence of a unicellular, marine, planktonic, cyanobacterium. Nature, Lond. 277, 293–294 (1979)
Wilkinson, J. F.: The extracellular polysaccharides of bacteria. Bact. Rev. 22, 46–73 (1958)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Communicated by G. F. Humphrey, Sydney
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Moriarty, D.J.W., Pollard, P.C. Diel variation of bacterial productivity in seagrass (Zostera capricorni) beds measured by rate of thymidine incorporation into DNA. Marine Biology 72, 165–173 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00396917
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00396917