Carbon metabolism in model microbial systems from a temperate salt marsh

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Abstract
The metabolism of a saltwater leachate of 14C-labeled Spartina alterniflora was examined in laboratory systems using mixed, salt marsh microbiol communities and, by addition of appropriate antibiotics, communities with bacteria or eukaryotes inhibited. Label uptake was more rapid in the systems with bacteria alone and with the mixed microbial community than with fungi alone. Mineralization of the added label was more extensive in the mixed and bacterial systems; the fungi appear more efficient at converting the label into particulate biomass. Particulate biomass production efficiencies ranged from a high of 0.82 for the fungal system to 0.21 in the mixed community, with the bacterial system giving an intemediate value of 0.54. The presence of protozoa and microcrustaceans in the mixed sytem appears to account for an increase in the mineralization of the label assimilated. Additional experiments with whole labeled Spartina, a leachate from Spartina and the Spartina after leaching revealed that the seawater-soluble portions of the plant were attacked most rapidly by the microbiol community.

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