Metagenomics and metatranscriptomics reveal broadly distributed, active, novel methanotrophs in the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone and in the marine water column.

The northern Gulf of Mexico (nGOM) hypoxic zone is a shallow water environment where methane, a potent greenhouse gas, fluxes from sediments to bottom water and remains trapped due to summertime stratification. When the water column is destratified, an active planktonic methanotrophic community could mitigate the efflux of methane, which accumulates to high concentrations, to the atmosphere. To investigate the possibility of such a biofilter in the nGOM hypoxic zone we performed metagenome assembly, and metagenomic and metatranscriptomic read mapping.

Meta-analysis of salt marsh vegetation impacts and recovery: a synthesis following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Marine oil spills continue to be a global issue, heightened by spill events such as the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the largest marine oil spill in US waters and among the largest worldwide, affecting over 1,000 km of sensitive wetland shorelines, primarily salt marshes supporting numerous ecosystem functions. To synthesize the effects of the oil spill on foundational vegetation species in the salt marsh ecosystem, Spartina alterniflora and Juncus roemerianus, we performed a meta-analysis using data from 10 studies and 255 sampling sites over seven years post-spill. We examined the hypotheses that the oil spill reduced plant cover, stem density, vegetation height, aboveground biomass, and belowground biomass, and tracked the degree of effects temporally to estimate recovery time frames.

Comment on "Legacy nitrogen may prevent achievement of water quality goals in the Gulf of Mexico".

Van Meter (Reports, 27 April 2018, p. 427) warn that achieving nitrogen reduction goals in the Gulf of Mexico will take decades as a result of legacy nitrogen effects. We discuss limitations of the modeling approach and demonstrate that legacy effects ranging from a few years to decades are equally consistent with observations.

Oiling of the continental shelf and coastal marshes over eight years after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

We measured the temporal and spatial trajectory of oiling from the April, 2010, Deepwater Horizon oil spill in water from Louisiana's continental shelf, the estuarine waters of Barataria Bay, and in coastal marsh sediments. The concentrations of 28 target alkanes and 43 target polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were determined in water samples collected on 10 offshore cruises, in 19 water samples collected monthly one km offshore at 13 inshore stations in 2010 and 2013, and in 16-60 surficial marsh sediment samples collected on each of 26 trips. The concentration of total aromatics in offshore waters peaked in late summer, 2010, at 100 times above the May, 2010 values, which were already slightly contaminated.

Extent of the annual Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone influences microbial community structure.

Rich geochemical datasets generated over the past 30 years have provided fine-scale resolution on the northern Gulf of Mexico (nGOM) coastal hypoxic (≤ 2 mg of O2 L-1) zone. In contrast, little is known about microbial community structure and activity in the hypoxic zone despite the implication that microbial respiration is responsible for forming low dissolved oxygen (DO) conditions. Here, we hypothesized that the extent of the hypoxic zone is a driver in determining microbial community structure, and in particular, the abundance of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA).

Metagenomic Assembly and Prokaryotic Metagenome-Assembled Genome Sequences from the Northern Gulf of Mexico "Dead Zone".

Coastal regions experiencing declining dissolved oxygen are increasing in number and severity around the world. However, despite the importance of microbial metabolism in coastal hypoxia, few metagenomic surveys exist. Our data set from within the second largest human-caused hypoxic region provides opportunities to more deeply explore the microbiology of these systems.

The polychaete, Paraprionospio pinnata, is a likely vector of domoic acid to the benthic food web in the northern Gulf of Mexico.

A somewhat disparate, yet temporally cohesive, set of phytoplankton abundance, microphytobenthos, including the diatom Pseudo-nitzschia, benthic infauna, and sediment toxin data were used to develop a theory for the transfer of domoic acid (DA) from the toxic diatom to the benthos in the highly productive waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico near the Mississippi River plume. Archived samples and new data were used to test the theory that DA is likely to be incorporated into benthic consumers. High spring abundances of potentially toxic Pseudo-nitzschia diatoms were simultaneously present in the surface waters, bottom waters and on the seafloor.

Space-Time Geostatistical Assessment of Hypoxia in the Northern Gulf of Mexico.

Nearly every summer, a large hypoxic zone forms in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Research on the causes and consequences of hypoxia requires reliable estimates of hypoxic extent, which can vary at submonthly time scales due to hydro-meteorological variability. Here, we use an innovative space-time geostatistical model and data collected by multiple research organizations to estimate bottom-water dissolved oxygen (BWDO) concentrations and hypoxic area across summers from 1985 to 2016.

Declining oxygen in the global ocean and coastal waters.

Oxygen is fundamental to life. Not only is it essential for the survival of individual animals, but it regulates global cycles of major nutrients and carbon. The oxygen content of the open ocean and coastal waters has been declining for at least the past half-century, largely because of human activities that have increased global temperatures and nutrients discharged to coastal waters.

Metabolic Roles of Uncultivated Bacterioplankton Lineages in the Northern Gulf of Mexico "Dead Zone".

Marine regions that have seasonal to long-term low dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations, sometimes called "dead zones," are increasing in number and severity around the globe with deleterious effects on ecology and economics. One of the largest of these coastal dead zones occurs on the continental shelf of the northern Gulf of Mexico (nGOM), which results from eutrophication-enhanced bacterioplankton respiration and strong seasonal stratification. Previous research in this dead zone revealed the presence of multiple cosmopolitan bacterioplankton lineages that have eluded cultivation, and thus their metabolic roles in this ecosystem remain unknown.

Trends in summer bottom-water temperatures on the northern Gulf of Mexico continental shelf from 1985 to 2015.

We quantified trends in the 1985 to 2015 summer bottom-water temperature on the northern Gulf of Mexico (nGOM) continental shelf for data collected at 88 stations with depths ranging from 3 to 63 m. The analysis was supplemented with monthly data collected from 1963 to 1965 in the same area. The seasonal summer peak in average bottom-water temperature varied concurrently with air temperature, but with a 2- to 5-month lag.

Morphology, molecular phylogeny and azaspiracid profile of Azadinium poporum (Dinophyceae) from the Gulf of Mexico.

Azadinium poporum produces a variety of azaspiracids and consists of several ribotypes, but information on its biogeography is limited. A strain of A. poporum (GM29) was incubated from a Gulf of Mexico sediment sample.

Cyst-motile stage relationship, morphology, ultrastructure, and molecular phylogeny of the gymnodinioid dinoflagellate Barrufeta resplendens comb. nov., formerly known as Gyrodinium resplendens, isolated from the Gulf of Mexico.

In the present study, we redescribed Gyrodinium resplendens through incubation of process bearing cysts extracted from sediment collected in the northern Gulf of Mexico. The morphology and ultrastructure of the motile stage and cyst stage were examined using light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy and this revealed that the species should be transferred to the genus Barrufeta. This genus differs from other gymnodinioid genera in possessing a Smurf-cap apical structure complex (ASC) and currently encompasses only one species, Barrufeta bravensis.

Phytoplankton and the Macondo oil spill: A comparison of the 2010 phytoplankton assemblage to baseline conditions on the Louisiana shelf.

The Macondo oil spill was likely the largest oil spill to ever occur in United States territorial waters. We report herein our findings comparing the available baseline phytoplankton data from coastal waters west of the Mississippi River, and samples collected monthly from the same sampling stations, during and after the oil spill (May-October, 2010). Our results indicate that overall, the phytoplankton abundance was 85% lower in 2010 versus the baseline, and that the species composition of the phytoplankton community moved towards diatoms and cyanobacteria and away from ciliates and phytoflagellates.

Archaeal enrichment in the hypoxic zone in the northern Gulf of Mexico.

Areas of low oxygen have spread exponentially over the past 40 years, and are cited as a key stressor on coastal ecosystems. The world's second largest coastal hypoxic (≤ 2 mg of O2 l(-1)) zone occurs annually in the northern Gulf of Mexico. The net effect of hypoxia is the diversion of energy flow away from higher trophic levels to microorganisms.

Cost-effective targeting of conservation investments to reduce the northern Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone.

A seasonally occurring summer hypoxic (low oxygen) zone in the northern Gulf of Mexico is the second largest in the world. Reductions in nutrients from agricultural cropland in its watershed are needed to reduce the hypoxic zone size to the national policy goal of 5,000 km(2) (as a 5-y running average) set by the national Gulf of Mexico Task Force's Action Plan. We develop an integrated assessment model linking the water quality effects of cropland conservation investment decisions on the more than 550 agricultural subwatersheds that deliver nutrients into the Gulf with a hypoxic zone model.

Retrospective analysis of midsummer hypoxic area and volume in the northern Gulf of Mexico, 1985-2011.

Robust estimates of hypoxic extent (both area and volume) are important for assessing the impacts of low dissolved oxygen on aquatic ecosystems at large spatial scales. Such estimates are also important for calibrating models linking hypoxia to causal factors, such as nutrient loading and stratification, and for informing management decisions. In this study, we develop a rigorous geostatistical modeling framework to estimate the hypoxic extent in the northern Gulf of Mexico from data collected during midsummer, quasi-synoptic monitoring cruises (1985-2011).

The eutrophication commandments.

Typically, rising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations are used to illustrate how humans have impacted the earth. However, we have also dramatically altered the amount of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) cycling through the biosphere. Eventually these nutrients are carried to coastal receiving waters where they cause severe, often negative consequences including increased phytoplankton and macroalgae blooms, loss of submerged aquatic vegetation, low oxygen events, and decreased biodiversity.

Predicting summer hypoxia in the northern Gulf of Mexico: redux.

We report on the evolution and accuracy of a model used to predict the mid-summer area of hypoxia (oxygen ≤2 mg l(-1)) in the northern Gulf of Mexico, use it to test for impacts from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (2010), and estimate the N loading that would meet a management goal. The prediction since 2000 were 100%±6% (μ±1 SE) of the actual value. The predicted in 2010 was 99% of that actual value, suggesting that the net effect of the 2010 oil spill on the hypoxic zone size was negligible.

A Bayesian hierarchical modeling approach for analyzing observational data from marine ecological studies.

We introduce the Bayesian hierarchical modeling approach for analyzing observational data from marine ecological studies using a data set intended for inference on the effects of bottom-water hypoxia on macrobenthic communities in the northern Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana, USA. We illustrate (1) the process of developing a model, (2) the use of the hierarchical model results for statistical inference through innovative graphical presentation, and (3) a comparison to the conventional linear modeling approach (ANOVA). Our results indicate that the Bayesian hierarchical approach is better able to detect a "treatment" effect than classical ANOVA while avoiding several arbitrary assumptions necessary for linear models, and is also more easily interpreted when presented graphically.

Hypoxia-related processes in the Baltic Sea.

Hypoxia, a growing worldwide problem, has been intermittently present in the modern Baltic Sea since its formation ca. 8000 cal. yr BP.