Ecomicrobiology and microbial assimilative capacity of the oligotrophic Andean Lake Laja, Chile

A strong socio-economic development pressure in South Chile will more and more cause an impact to the present lakes and rivers. Nevertheless, our knowledge concerning the ecological structure and the microbial self-purification capabilities of these lacustrine water bodies is scant but essential for...

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Autores principales: KARRASCH,BERNHARD, WOELFL,STEFAN, URRUTIA,ROBERTO, GONZÁLEZ,JENNY, VALDOVINOS,CLAUDIO, CID,HERNÁN, PARRA,OSCAR
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Sociedad de Biología de Chile 2011
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Acceso en línea:http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0716-078X2011000300010
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spelling oai:scielo:S0716-078X20110003000102011-12-26Ecomicrobiology and microbial assimilative capacity of the oligotrophic Andean Lake Laja, ChileKARRASCH,BERNHARDWOELFL,STEFANURRUTIA,ROBERTOGONZÁLEZ,JENNYVALDOVINOS,CLAUDIOCID,HERNÁNPARRA,OSCAR bacterioplankton extracellular enzymes heterotrophic flagellates N-limitation, phytoplankton A strong socio-economic development pressure in South Chile will more and more cause an impact to the present lakes and rivers. Nevertheless, our knowledge concerning the ecological structure and the microbial self-purification capabilities of these lacustrine water bodies is scant but essential for a future sustainable development of land and water use. We studied Lake Laja, a lake already heavily impacted by water diversions for hydropower generation and irrigation. Typical for the Andean region Lake Laja is an oligotrophic water body, limited by nitrogen nutrients. Only very low chlorophyll a and particulate organic carbon (POC) concentrations and a small abundance and biomass of bacteria (mainly ultramicrobacteria) and heterotrophic flagellates were encountered. Weak trophic interrelations were derived from a high bacteria-to-heterotrophic flagellate ratio. For the ten investigated extracellular enzymes (alkaline phosphatase, leucine, arginine-, glycine and tyrosine-aminopeptidase, α-, β-D-glucosidase, α-, β-D-galactosidase, N-acetyl-β-D-glucosaminidase), with the exception of α-D-glucosidase, a broad range of organic matter degradation activities was proven. Probably, due to the N-limitation, organic nitrogen hydrolysing extracellular enzymes reached activities on average of 45 % compared to other studies in oligotrophic waters. The possible effect of N-limitation on extracellular enzyme activities was more pronounced by cell specific extracellular enzymatic activity rates, which exceeded those of other oligotrophic water bodies on average by factor 2. The overall activities of all microbial extracellular enzymes studied proved to be dominated by the dissolved free external enzymes (up to 98 %) over the ectoenzymes which are associated with particulate organic matter (bacterial cell walls, particles, and aggregates). It is concluded that future socio-economic changes, dealing with watershed human intervention (accelerating inorganic and organic loads) as well as global change (temperature and precipitation changes) could lead to significant changes in the ecology of Lake Laja.info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessSociedad de Biología de ChileRevista chilena de historia natural v.84 n.3 20112011-09-01text/htmlhttp://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0716-078X2011000300010en10.4067/S0716-078X2011000300010
institution Scielo Chile
collection Scielo Chile
language English
topic bacterioplankton
extracellular enzymes
heterotrophic flagellates
N-limitation, phytoplankton
spellingShingle bacterioplankton
extracellular enzymes
heterotrophic flagellates
N-limitation, phytoplankton
KARRASCH,BERNHARD
WOELFL,STEFAN
URRUTIA,ROBERTO
GONZÁLEZ,JENNY
VALDOVINOS,CLAUDIO
CID,HERNÁN
PARRA,OSCAR
Ecomicrobiology and microbial assimilative capacity of the oligotrophic Andean Lake Laja, Chile
description A strong socio-economic development pressure in South Chile will more and more cause an impact to the present lakes and rivers. Nevertheless, our knowledge concerning the ecological structure and the microbial self-purification capabilities of these lacustrine water bodies is scant but essential for a future sustainable development of land and water use. We studied Lake Laja, a lake already heavily impacted by water diversions for hydropower generation and irrigation. Typical for the Andean region Lake Laja is an oligotrophic water body, limited by nitrogen nutrients. Only very low chlorophyll a and particulate organic carbon (POC) concentrations and a small abundance and biomass of bacteria (mainly ultramicrobacteria) and heterotrophic flagellates were encountered. Weak trophic interrelations were derived from a high bacteria-to-heterotrophic flagellate ratio. For the ten investigated extracellular enzymes (alkaline phosphatase, leucine, arginine-, glycine and tyrosine-aminopeptidase, α-, β-D-glucosidase, α-, β-D-galactosidase, N-acetyl-β-D-glucosaminidase), with the exception of α-D-glucosidase, a broad range of organic matter degradation activities was proven. Probably, due to the N-limitation, organic nitrogen hydrolysing extracellular enzymes reached activities on average of 45 % compared to other studies in oligotrophic waters. The possible effect of N-limitation on extracellular enzyme activities was more pronounced by cell specific extracellular enzymatic activity rates, which exceeded those of other oligotrophic water bodies on average by factor 2. The overall activities of all microbial extracellular enzymes studied proved to be dominated by the dissolved free external enzymes (up to 98 %) over the ectoenzymes which are associated with particulate organic matter (bacterial cell walls, particles, and aggregates). It is concluded that future socio-economic changes, dealing with watershed human intervention (accelerating inorganic and organic loads) as well as global change (temperature and precipitation changes) could lead to significant changes in the ecology of Lake Laja.
author KARRASCH,BERNHARD
WOELFL,STEFAN
URRUTIA,ROBERTO
GONZÁLEZ,JENNY
VALDOVINOS,CLAUDIO
CID,HERNÁN
PARRA,OSCAR
author_facet KARRASCH,BERNHARD
WOELFL,STEFAN
URRUTIA,ROBERTO
GONZÁLEZ,JENNY
VALDOVINOS,CLAUDIO
CID,HERNÁN
PARRA,OSCAR
author_sort KARRASCH,BERNHARD
title Ecomicrobiology and microbial assimilative capacity of the oligotrophic Andean Lake Laja, Chile
title_short Ecomicrobiology and microbial assimilative capacity of the oligotrophic Andean Lake Laja, Chile
title_full Ecomicrobiology and microbial assimilative capacity of the oligotrophic Andean Lake Laja, Chile
title_fullStr Ecomicrobiology and microbial assimilative capacity of the oligotrophic Andean Lake Laja, Chile
title_full_unstemmed Ecomicrobiology and microbial assimilative capacity of the oligotrophic Andean Lake Laja, Chile
title_sort ecomicrobiology and microbial assimilative capacity of the oligotrophic andean lake laja, chile
publisher Sociedad de Biología de Chile
publishDate 2011
url http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0716-078X2011000300010
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