Dissolved organic phosphorus utilization by the marine bacterium Ruegeria pomeroyi DSS-3 reveals chain length-dependent polyphosphate degradation.

Dissolved organic phosphorus (DOP) is a critical nutritional resource for marine microbial communities. However, the relative bioavailability of different types of DOP, such as phosphomonoesters (P-O-C) and phosphoanhydrides (P-O-P), is poorly understood. Here we assess the utilization of these P sources by a representative bacterial copiotroph, Ruegeria pomeroyi DSS-3.

The impacts of warming and hypoxia on the performance of an obligate ram ventilator.

Climate change is causing the warming and deoxygenation of coastal habitats like Chesapeake Bay that serve as important nursery habitats for many marine fish species. As conditions continue to change, it is important to understand how these changes impact individual species' behavioral and metabolic performance. The sandbar shark () is an obligate ram-ventilating apex predator whose juveniles use Chesapeake Bay as a nursery ground up to 10 years of age.

Preferential utilization of inorganic polyphosphate over other bioavailable phosphorus sources by the model diatoms Thalassiosira spp.

Polyphosphates and phosphomonoesters are dominant components of marine dissolved organic phosphorus (DOP). Collectively, DOP represents an important nutritional phosphorus (P) source for phytoplankton growth in the ocean, but the contribution of specific DOP sources to microbial community P demand is not fully understood. In a prior study, it was reported that inorganic polyphosphate was not bioavailable to the model diatoms Thalassiosira weissflogii and Thalassiosira pseudonana.