Experimental insights into the importance of aquatic bacterial community composition to the degradation of dissolved organic matter

Bacteria play a central role in the cycling of carbon, yet our understanding of the relationship between the taxonomic composition and the degradation of dissolved organic matter (DOM) is still poor. In this experimental study, we were able to demonstrate a direct link between community composition and ecosystem functioning in that differently structured aquatic bacterial communities differed in their degradation of terrestrially derived DOM. Although the same amount of carbon was processed, both the temporal pattern of degradation and the compounds degraded differed among communities. We, moreover, uncovered that low-molecular-weight carbon was available to all communities for utilisation, whereas the ability…

• NS
  National Science Foundation
• S
  Strong
• KF
  Kempe Foundation
• SN
  Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
• SF
  Svenska Forskningsrådet Formas

  Award: 2011-5689
• V
  Vetenskapsrådet

  Awards: 2010-4081, 2011-5689
• UM
  Uppsala Multidisciplinary Center for Advanced Computational Science