marine microbiology

Heterotrophic transformations

Quantitatively, the most important role of microorganisms in the marine environment is heterotrophic decomposition and remineralization of organic matter. It is estimated that about 95% of the photosynthetically produced organic matter is recycled in the upper 300--400 m (1000--1300 ft) of water, while the remaining 5%, largely particulate matter, is further decomposed during sedimentation. Only about 1% of the total organic matter produced in surface waters arrives at the deep-sea floor in particulate form. In other words, the major source of energy and carbon for all marine heterotrophic organisms is distributed over the huge volume of pelagic water mass with an average depth of about 3800 m (2.5 mi). In this highly dilute medium, particulate organic matter is partly replenished from dissolved organic carbon by microbial growth, the so-called microbial loop.

Of the large variety of organic material decomposed by marine heterotrophic bacteria, oil and related hydrocarbons are of special interest. Other environmentally detrimental pollutants that are directly dumped or reach the ocean as the ultimate sink by land runoff are microbiologically degraded at varying rates. Techniques of molecular genetics are aimed at encoding genes of desirable enzymes into organisms for use as degraders of particular pollutants.

A specifically marine microbiological phenomenon is bacterial bioluminescence, which may function as a respiratory bypass of the electron transport chain. Free-living luminescent bacteria are distinguished from those that live in symbiotic fashion in light organelles of fishes or invertebrates. See Bioluminescence

Photoautotrophs and chemoautotrophs

The type of photosynthesis carried out by purple sulfur bacteria uses hydrogen sulfide (instead of water) as a source of electrons and thus produces sulfur, not oxygen. Photoautotrophic bacteria are therefore limited to environments where light and hydrogen sulfide occur simultaneously, mostly in lagoons and estuaries. In the presence of sufficient amounts of organic substrates, heterotrophic sulfate-reducing bacteria provide the necessary hydrogen sulfide where oxygen is depleted by decomposition processes. Anoxygenic photosynthesis is also carried out by some blue-green algae, which are now classified as cyanobacteria. See Cyanobacteria, Photosynthesis

Chemoautotrophic bacteria are able to reduce inorganic carbon to organic carbon (chemosynthesis) by using the chemical energy liberated during the oxidation of inorganic compounds. Their occurrence, therefore, is not light-limited but depends on the availability of oxygen and the suitable inorganic electron source. Their role as producers of organic carbon is insignificant in comparison with that of photosynthetic producers (exempting the processes found at deep-sea hydrothermal vents). The oxidation of ammonia and nitrite to nitrate (nitrification) furnishes the chemically stable and biologically most available form of inorganic nitrogen for photosynthesis. See Nitrogen cycle

The generation of methane and acetic acid from hydrogen and carbon dioxide stems from anaerobic bacterial chemosynthesis, and is common in anoxic marine sediments. See Methanogenesis (bacteria)

Marine microbial sulfur cycle

Sulfate is quantitatively the most prominent anion in seawater. Since it can be used by a number of heterotrophic bacteria as an electron acceptor in respiration following the depletion of dissolved oxygen, the resulting sulfate reduction and the further recycling of the reduced sulfur compounds make the marine environment microbiologically distinctly different from fresh water and most soils. The marine anaerobic, heterotrophic sulfate-reducing bacteria are classified in three genera; Desulfovibrio, Desulfotomaculum, and Clostridium.

The marine aerobic sulfur-oxidizing bacteria fall into two groups: the thiobacilli and the filamentous or unicellular organisms. While the former comprise a wide range from obligately to facultatively chemoautotrophic species (requiring none or some organic compounds), few of the latter have been isolated in pure culture, and chemoautotrophy has been demonstrated in only a few.

Hydrothermal vent bacteria

Two types of hydrothermal vents have been investigated: warm vents (8--25^°C or 46--77^°F) with flow rates of 1--2 cm (0.4--0.8 in.) per second, and hot vents (260--360^°C or 500--600^°F) with flow rates of 2 m (6.5 ft) per second. In their immediate vicinity, dense communities of benthic invertebrates are found with a biomass that is orders of magnitude higher than that normally found at these depths and dependent on photosynthetic food sources. This phenomenon has been explained by the bacterial primary production of organic carbon through the chemosynthetic oxidation of reduced inorganic compounds. The chemical energy required for this process is analogous to the light energy used in photosynthesis and is provided by the geothermal reduction of inorganic chemical species. The specific compounds contained in the emitted vent waters and suitable for bacterial chemosynthesis are mainly hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen, methane, and reduced iron and manganese. The extremely thermophilic microorganisms isolated from hydrothermal vents belong, with the exception of the genus Thermotoga, to the Archaebacteria. Of eight archaeal genera, growing within a temperature range of about 75--110^°C (165--230^°F), three are able to grow beyond the boiling point of water, if the necessary pressure is applied to prevent boiling. These organisms are strictly anaerobic. However, unlike mesophilic bacteria, hyperthermophilic marine isolates tolerate oxygen when cooled below their minimum growth temperature. See Archaebacteria, Hydrothermal vent