Bacterioplankton Activity in a Meso-eutrophic Subtropical Coastal Lagoon.

The aim of this study was to investigate whether the bacterioplankton activity in the meso-eutrophic Conceição Lagoon would increase significantly under allochthonous inputs of inorganic nutrients and organic carbon. Abundance and biomass of bacterioplankton were evaluated under three treatments: light (14 h light/10 h dark), complete darkness (dark-control), and nutrient (C + N + P-dark, 100 : 10 : 1) enrichments during 72 h. Nutrient enrichments promoted a significant increase in abundance (maximum of 19.

Bacterioplankton Dynamics within a Large Anthropogenically Impacted Urban Estuary.

The abundant and diverse microorganisms that inhabit aquatic systems are both determinants and indicators of aquatic health, providing essential ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling but also causing harmful blooms and disease in impacted habitats. Estuaries are among the most urbanized coastal ecosystems and as a consequence experience substantial environmental pressures, providing ideal systems to study the influence of anthropogenic inputs on microbial ecology. Here we use the highly urbanized Sydney Harbor, Australia, as a model system to investigate shifts in microbial community composition and function along natural and anthopogenic physicochemical gradients, driven by stormwater inflows, tidal flushing and the input of contaminants and both naturally and anthropogenically derived nutrients.