Resource competition and community structure in aquatic micro-organisms: experimental studies of algae and bacteria along a gradient of organic carbon to inorganic phosphorus supply

By James P. Grover. 2000

93 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Two microbial communities were grown in chemostats receiving a low supply of inorganic Phosphorus (P) (10 µM) and different supplies of organic carbon (OC), ranging from 0 to 600 µM, either as glucose or a mixture of organic substrates. One community was a natural assemblage of lake plankton and the other was a model community composed of cultured organisms. As the supply ratio of OC to inorganic P increased, concentrations of dissolved OC increased, concentrations of dissolved P decreased and abundances of phototrophic algae decreased. Abundances of bacteria and phago- trophic organisms did not consistently change with the OC:P supply ratio. The model community was first established with a phototroph (Scenedesmus quadricauda) and bacteria; the steady states of this community were invasible by the mixotroph Ochromonas danica under all OC:P supply ratios used. When OC supply was high, both microbial communities persisted with higher concentrations of dissolved OC when mixed substrates, rather than glucose, were supplied. Otherwise, the effects of organic substrate composition appeared to be secondary to those of the OC:P supply ratio. These experiments confirm some elements of published theory on resource-based interactions among heterotrophic bacteria and phototrophic algae.

Subfields: Ecology, Environmental Chemistry, Oceanography

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/0d4120fb0d306cb8edb0251183074fc18421f89f

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Citations in the corpus

Positive and negative effects of allochthonous dissolved organic matter and inorganic nutrients on phytoplankton growth (2002, background): “For example, some studies have shown that known mixotrophs are more prevalent than autotrophs when organic carbon supply is high (Jansson et al. 1999; Grover 2000).”
Effects of light, dissolved organic carbon, and inorganic nutrients [2pt] on the relationship between algae and heterotrophic bacteria in stream periphyton (2002, background): “Where bacterial production is not trophically coupled to algal production, heterotrophic bacteria may compete with algae for inorganic nutrients (Grover, 2000, Currie & Kalf, 1984a, 1984b, & 1984c; Jansson, 1988).”
Algae-bacteria interactions: Evolution, ecology and emerging applications. (2016, background): “:P ratio, carbon and lightintensityinregulatingthegrowthoftheseorganismsinassociation have been partly discussed (Grover, 2000; Gurung et al., 1999; Currie and Kalff, 1984).”
Integrating micro-algae into wastewater treatment: A review. (2021, background): “N and P) become limiting, the autochthonous microbial community in wastewater may compete with exogenous micro-algae (supplemented into the wastewater) for resources (Lee et al., 2013a, 2013b; Grover, 2000).”