2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference

March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH

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5/24/2021 | 8:30 AM - 10:30 AM | OXYGEN, PH, AND LABILE ORGANIC CARBON AS POSSIBLE MECHANISMS FOR ALGAL STIMULATION OF BACTERIAL AND FUNGAL PRODUCTION IN PERIPHYTON | Virtual Platform

OXYGEN, PH, AND LABILE ORGANIC CARBON AS POSSIBLE MECHANISMS FOR ALGAL STIMULATION OF BACTERIAL AND FUNGAL PRODUCTION IN PERIPHYTON

Recent research indicates that algal photosynthesis is stimulatory to microbial heterotrophs within periphyton communities, however the exact mechanisms driving this stimulation remain unknown. We incubated submerged Typha domingensis leaf litter in greenhouse mesocosms under low and high nutrient regimes and conducted microbial production assays after 11 or 18 weeks of colonization. We manipulated environmental factors (oxygen, pH, and labile organic carbon) affected by algal photosynthesis to test the hypothesis that one or more of these factors stimulated heterotrophic microbial production. In the low nutrient treatments, bacterial production was increased by glucose addition during week 11 (p<0.001) and by photosynthesis during week 18 (p<0.05). Fungal production was stimulated by photosynthesis in the high nutrient treatments during weeks 11 (p<0.001) and 18 (p<0.01) and by glucose during week 11 (p<0.05). Our results confirm that algal photosynthesis can increase heterotrophic microbial production and suggest that photosynthetic labile organic carbon production could be an important stimulatory mechanism. The research highlights the role of photosynthesis as a stimulator of heterotrophic processes in aquatic ecosystems.

Microbial ecology
Ecological dynamics
Nutrient cycling

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Presenters/Authors

Jennifer Harper (), Biology Department, Eastern Michigan University, jharpe18@emich.edu;