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Messer LF, Doubell M, Jeffries TC, Brown MV, Seymour JR
Prokaryotic and diazotrophic population dynamics within a large oligotrophic inverse estuary
Inverse estuaries represent a unique marine environment which unlike classical estuaries, receive very little freshwater inputs and can exhibit steep horizontal salinity gradients from marine to hypersaline waters. Messer and colleagues provide the first description of bacterioplankton and nitrogen fixing (diazotrophic) communities within a temperate inverse estuary in southern Australia, an environment with distinct heterogeneity in biotic and abiotic resources. Biogeographic patterns in the relative abundance of significant cyanobacterial taxa, such as Synechococcus and the diazotrophic ‘Candidatus Atelocyanobacterium thalassa’, demonstrates the complex microbial community dynamics and niche differentiation within the estuary and suggests that pelagic nitrogen fixation could be an important, previously overlooked, process in this temperate system.
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