Enumeration of Fe(II)-Oxidizing and Fe(III)-Reducing Bacteria in the Root Zone of Wetland Plants: Implications for a Rhizosphere Iron Cycle

Iron plaque occurs on the roots of most wetland and submersed aquatic plant species and is a large pool of oxidized Fe(III) in some environments. Because plaque formation in wetlands with circumneutral pH has been largely assumed to be an abiotic process, no systematic effort has been made to descri...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Biogeochemistry Vol. 64; no. 1; pp. 77 - 96
Main Authors:	Weiss, Johanna V., Emerson, David, Backer, Stephanie M., Megonigal, J. Patrick
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Heidelberg Kluwer Academic Publishers 01-06-2003 Springer Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:	Animal and plant ecology Animal, plant and microbial ecology Aquatic ecosystems Aquatic habitats Aquatic plants Bacteria Biological and medical sciences Earth sciences Earth, ocean, space Exact sciences and technology Forest soils Fresh water ecosystems Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology Iron Microbial activity Microbiology Oxidation Plant roots Plant species Plantae Plants Relative abundance Rhizosphere Riparian soils Root zone Roots Soil microorganisms Soils Surficial geology Synecology Wetland soils Wetlands West Virginia United States Maryland Virginia USA, Mid-Atlantic Region habitat bacteria geochemical cycle fresh-water environment ferric iron ferrous iron Fe(II)-oxidizing bacteria marshes oxidation vegetation Fe(III)-reducing bacteria roots North America Rhizosphere wetlands prokaryotes plants ecosystems pH iron soils Wetland
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Summary:	Iron plaque occurs on the roots of most wetland and submersed aquatic plant species and is a large pool of oxidized Fe(III) in some environments. Because plaque formation in wetlands with circumneutral pH has been largely assumed to be an abiotic process, no systematic effort has been made to describe plaque-associated microbial communities or their role in plaque deposition. We hypothesized that Fe(II)-oxidizing bacteria (FeOB) and Fe(III)-reducing bacteria (FeRB) are abundant in the rhizosphere of wetland plants across a wide range of biogeochemical environments. In a survey of 13 wetland and aquatic habitats in the Mid-Atlantic region, FeOB were present in the rhizosphere of 92% of the plant specimens collected (n = 37), representing 25 plant species. In a subsequent study at six of these sites, bacterial abundances were determined in the rhizosphere and bulk soil using the most probable number technique. The soil had significantly more total bacteria than the roots on a dry mass basis (1.4× 109 cells/g soil vs. 8.6× 107 cells/g root; p < 0.05). The absolute abundance of aerobic, lithotrophic FeOB was higher in the soil than in the rhizosphere (3.7× 106 /g soil vs. 5.9× 105 /g root; p < 0.05), but there was no statistical difference between these habitats in terms of relative abundance (∼ 1% of the total cell number). In the rhizosphere, FeRB accounted for an average of 12% of all bacterial cells while in the soil they accounted for < 1% of the total bacteria. We concluded that FeOB are ubiquitous and abundant in wetland ecosystems, and that FeRB are dominant members of the rhizosphere microbial community. These observations provide a strong rationale for quantifying the contribution of FeOB to rhizosphere Fe(II) oxidation rates, and investigating the combined role of FeOB and FeRB in a rhizosphere iron cycle.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23
ISSN:	0168-2563 1573-515X
DOI:	10.1023/a:1024953027726