DOI: 10.1126/science.1218344 ISSN:

Substrate-Controlled Succession of Marine Bacterioplankton Populations Induced by a Phytoplankton Bloom

Hanno Teeling, Bernhard M. Fuchs, Dörte Becher, Christine Klockow, Antje Gardebrecht, Christin M. Bennke, Mariette Kassabgy, Sixing Huang, Alexander J. Mann, Jost Waldmann, Marc Weber, Anna Klindworth, Andreas Otto, Jana Lange, Jörg Bernhardt, Christine Reinsch, Michael Hecker, Jörg Peplies, Frank D. Bockelmann, Ulrich Callies, Gunnar Gerdts, Antje Wichels, Karen H. Wiltshire, Frank Oliver Glöckner, Thomas Schweder, Rudolf Amann
  • Multidisciplinary

Blooming Succession

Algal blooms in the ocean will trigger a succession of microbial predators and scavengers. Teeling et al. (p. 608 ) used a combination of microscopy, metagenomics, and metaproteomics to analyze samples from a North Sea diatom bloom over time. Distinct steps of polysaccharide degradation and carbohydrate uptake could be assigned to clades of Flavobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria, which differ profoundly in their transporter profiles and their uptake systems for phosphorus. The phytoplankton/bacterioplankton coupling in coastal marine systems is of crucial importance for global carbon cycling. Bacterioplankton clade succession following phytoplankton blooms may be predictable enough that it can be included in models of global carbon cycling.

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