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Seasonal and spatial distribution of bacterial production and biomass along a salinity gradient (Northern Adriatic Sea)

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Abstract

The Adriatic Sea is a semi-enclosed ecosystem that receives in itsshallow part, the northern basin, significant freshwater inputs whichmarkedly increase its productivity with respect to the oligotrophic featuresof the Mediterranean sea. In this area, especially on the western coastwhere river plumes diffuse, high physical (density) and chemical (nutrients)gradients occur on a small scale, both horizontal and vertical. Results ofbacterial production as 3H-thymidine incorporation, bacterialabundance as DAPI direct count, autotrophic biomass as chlorophyll a andtotal biomass as ATP from three areas in the Northern Adriatic Sea arereported. The three sites, differently influenced by the river waterdiffusion, were sampled seasonally over two days, every 24 h, in foursurveys from April 1995 to January 1996. Bacterioplankton production,strongly correlated with primary production, was extremely high near thecoast in low-salinity, high-nutrient waters, mostly as an indirectconsequence of riverine inputs causing an increase in phytoplanktonproduction stimulated by physically driven nutrient inputs. In the warmmonths bacterial activity was higher than in cold months. While bacteriaabundance did not appear related to the salinity gradients, bacterialproduction (from 0.6 to 372 pM 3H-thymidine h™1incorporated, corresponding to 0.01–8.2 µg C l™1h™1) and the relative generation times (from 0.2 to 35 days)showed a high range of values, representing a variety of situations, fromestuaries to the ocean. The resulting role of the bacterial community in thecarbon cycle is very consistent, processing amounts of carbon which havebeen estimated as high as the 80% and the 260% of thosesynthesized by autotrophs in summer and winter, respectively.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Istituto di Ricerca Sulle Acque – CNR, Via Reno 1, 00198, Roma, Italy

    A. Puddu, C. Bacci & M. Lopez

  2. Istituto Sperimentale Talassografico – CNR, Spianata S. Raineri, 98122, Messina, Italy

    R. La Ferla, A. Allegra & F. Oliva

  3. Istituto Zooprofilattico dell‘Umbria e delle Marche, V.le Adriatico 52, 61032, Fano, Italy

    C. Pierotti

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  1. A. Puddu
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  2. R. La Ferla
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  3. A. Allegra
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  4. C. Bacci
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  5. M. Lopez
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  6. F. Oliva
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  7. C. Pierotti
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Puddu, A., La Ferla, R., Allegra, A. et al. Seasonal and spatial distribution of bacterial production and biomass along a salinity gradient (Northern Adriatic Sea). Hydrobiologia 363, 271–282 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1003169620843

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