Publication Date:
2022-05-25
Description:
© The Author(s), 2012. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Biogeosciences 9 (2012): 2485-2495, doi:10.5194/bg-9-2485-2012.
Description:
Phytoplankton and bacterial pigment compositions were determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) in two freshwater reservoirs (Tillari Dam and Selaulim Dam), which are located at the foothills of the Western Ghats in India. These reservoirs experience anoxia in the hypolimnion during summer. Water samples were collected from both reservoirs during anoxic periods while one of them (Tillari Reservoir) was also sampled in winter, when convective mixing results in well-oxygenated conditions throughout the water column. During the period of anoxia (summer), bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) e isomers and isorenieratene, characteristic of brown sulfur bacteria, were dominant in the anoxic (sulfidic) layer of the Tillari Reservoir under low light intensities. The winter observations showed the dominance of small cells of Chlorophyll b-containing green algae and cyanobacteria, with minor presence of fucoxanthin-containing diatoms and peridinin-containing dinoflagellates. Using total BChl e concentration observed in June, the standing stock of brown sulfur bacteria carbon in the anoxic compartment of Tillari Reservoir was estimated to be 2.27 gC m−2, which is much higher than the similar estimate for carbon derived from oxygenic photosynthesis (0.82 gC m−2. The Selaulim Reservoir also displayed similar characteristics with the presence of BChl e isomers and isorenieratene in the anoxic hypolimnion during summer. Although sulfidic conditions prevailed in the water column below the thermocline, the occurrence of photo-autotrophic bacteria was restricted only to mid-depths (maximal concentration of BChl e isomers was detected at 0.2% of the surface incident light). This shows that the vertical distribution of photo-autotrophic sulfur bacteria is primarily controlled by light penetration in the water column where the presence of H2S provides a suitable biogeochemical environment for them to flourish.
Description:
Financial
support for this work was provided by the Council of Scientific
& Industrial Research (CSIR) and Ministry of Earth Sciences
(MoES). S. Kurian acknowledges POGO-SCOR for financial
support to visit WHOI. R. Roy, G. Narvenkar and A. Sarkar
received fellowship support from CSIR. D. Repeta acknowledges
support from US National Science Foundation Center Award
EF0424599 to the Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research
and Education (C-MORE).
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Article
Format:
application/pdf
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