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Manipulation of the Dissolved Organic Carbon Pool in an Agricultural Stream: Responses in Microbial Community Structure, Denitrification, and Assimilatory Nitrogen Uptake

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Abstract

Carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) are strongly coupled across ecosystems due to stoichiometrically balanced assimilatory demand as well as dissimilatory processes such as denitrification. Microorganisms mediate these biogeochemical cycles, but how microbial communities respond to environmental changes, such as dissolved organic carbon (DOC) availability, and how those responses impact coupled biogeochemical cycles in streams is not clear. We enriched a stream in central Indiana with labile DOC for 5 days to investigate coupled C and N cycling. Before, and on day 5 of the enrichment, we examined assimilatory uptake and denitrification using whole-stream 15N-nitrate tracer additions and short-term nitrate releases. Concurrently, we measured bacterial and denitrifier abundance and community structure. We predicted N assimilation and denitrification would be stimulated by the addition of labile C and would be mediated by increases in bacterial activity, abundance, and a shift in community structure. In response to the twofold increase in DOC concentrations in the water column, N assimilation increased throughout the enrichment. Community respiration doubled during the enrichment and was associated with a change in bacterial community structure (based on terminal restriction fragment length polymorphisms of the 16S rRNA gene). In contrast, there was little response in denitrification or denitrifier community structure, likely because labile C was assimilated by heterotrophic communities on the stream bed prior to reaching denitrifiers within the sediments. Our results suggest that coupling between C and N in streams involves potentially complex interactions with sediment texture and organic matter, microbial community structure, and possibly indirect biogeochemical pathways.

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Acknowledgments

We thank A. Baxter, M. Brennan, L. Brooks, D. Oviedo-Vargas, S. Weatherwax, and A. White for field and laboratory assistance. We also thank C. Blackwood and L. Feinstein for assistance with redundancy analysis and N. Shaw for access to the stream. This project was supported by the National Science Foundation (DEB-0743396). J. Edgerton was supported by NSF IGERT Grant DGE 0904560.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, 47405-2204, USA

    Laura T. Johnson & Todd V. Royer

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, 44242, USA

    Jael M. Edgerton & Laura G. Leff

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  1. Laura T. Johnson
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  2. Todd V. Royer
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Correspondence to Laura T. Johnson.

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Author Contributions

LTJ, TVR, and LGL conceived and designed the study; LTJ conducted the experiment, analyzed the data, and wrote the paper with substantial contributions from TVR and LGL; JME and LGL conducted the molecular analyses and analyzed microbial data.

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Johnson, L.T., Royer, T.V., Edgerton, J.M. et al. Manipulation of the Dissolved Organic Carbon Pool in an Agricultural Stream: Responses in Microbial Community Structure, Denitrification, and Assimilatory Nitrogen Uptake. Ecosystems 15, 1027–1038 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-012-9563-x

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