Bacterial community dynamics in the hyporheic zone of an intermittent stream

The dynamics of in situ bacterial communities in the hyporheic zone of an intermittent stream were described in high spatiotemporal detail. We assessed community dynamics in stream sediments and interstitial pore water over a two-year period using terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism. H...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	The ISME Journal Vol. 6; no. 5; pp. 1078 - 1088
Main Authors:	Febria, Catherine M, Beddoes, Paul, Fulthorpe, Roberta R, Williams, D Dudley
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	London Nature Publishing Group UK 01-05-2012 Nature Publishing Group
Subjects:	Bacteria Bacteria - classification Bacteria - genetics Bacteria - growth & development Biodiversity Biomedical and Life Sciences Community composition Dissolved organic carbon DNA, Bacterial - analysis Drought Droughts Drying Ecology Evolutionary Biology Geologic Sediments - microbiology Intermittent streams Life Sciences Microbial Ecology Microbial Genetics and Genomics Microbiology Nitrate Nutrients Original original-article Phosphate Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length Pore water Pores Rivers - microbiology Seasonal variations Seasons Sediment samplers Sediments Streams Surface water Taxa Water - chemistry Water Microbiology Water temperature Watersheds stream sediments operational taxonomic unit (OTU) intermittent streams terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) bacterial communities hyporheic zone
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Summary:	The dynamics of in situ bacterial communities in the hyporheic zone of an intermittent stream were described in high spatiotemporal detail. We assessed community dynamics in stream sediments and interstitial pore water over a two-year period using terminal-restriction fragment length polymorphism. Here, we show that sediments remained saturated despite months of drought and limited hydrologic connectivity. The intermittency of stream surface water affected interstitial pore water communities more than hyporheic sediment communities. Seasonal changes in bacterial community composition was significantly associated with water intermittency, phosphate concentrations, temperature, nitrate and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations. During periods of low- to no-surface water, communities changed from being rich in operational taxonomic units (OTUs) in isolated surface pools, to a few OTUs overall, including an overall decline in both common and rare taxa. Individual OTUs were compared between porewater and sediments. A total of 19% of identified OTUs existed in both porewater and sediment samples, suggesting that bacteria use hyporheic sediments as a type of refuge from dessication, transported through hydrologically connected pore spaces. Stream intermittency impacted bacterial diversity on rapid timescales (that is, within days), below-ground and in the hyporheic zone. Owing to the coupling of intermittent streams to the surrounding watershed, we stress the importance of understanding connectivity at the pore scale, consequences for below-ground and above-ground biodiversity and nutrient processing, and across both short- and long-time periods (that is, days to months to years).
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-2 ObjectType-Feature-1 Current address: Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, 1 Williams Street, PO Box 38, Solomons MD 20688, USA. Current address: Golder and Associates, 500-4260 Still Creek Drive, Burnaby, BC V5C 6C6, Canada.
ISSN:	1751-7362 1751-7370
DOI:	10.1038/ismej.2011.173