Abstract
Natural bacterial communities impact the motility of
isotopes, such as radionuclides, in the environment. As a
result of post glacial crustal rebound radionuclides may
escape the deep geological repository for spent nuclear
fuel on Olkiluoto Island, Finland, and reach surface
environments. Lastensuo Bog, a 5300-year-old raised bog
in southwestern Finland, functions as analogue ecotope
for bogs formed in Olkiluoto due to the crustal rebound.
A core comprising the depth profile (0 - 7 m depth) of
the bog including surface Sphagnum moss, peat and bottom
clay was obtained using a stainless steel corer. High
throughput sequencing was used to characterize the
bacterial communities throughout the bog's depth profile.
A total of 12,680 bacterial Operational Taxonomic Units
(OTUs) (97% sequence similarity) were detected comprising
altogether 40 different bacterial phyla. Of these, 13
phyla were present at all depths, accounting for 97% -
99% of the whole bacterial community. The bacterial
communities differed notably through the bog's depth
profile, dividing it into five distinct strata: 1) the
Sphagnum moss layer; 2) 0.5 - 3.7 m; 3) 3.7 - 4.0 m; 4)
5.5 - 6.0 m deep peat; 5) the former seabed clay at 6.5 -
7.0 m depth. Acidobacteria, ?- and ?-Proteobacteria
dominated the surface community, but in the peat
Acidobacteria contributed with up to 85% of the bacterial
community. The estimated bacterial population density
ranged between 2 * 109 and 5 * 1010 16S rRNA gene copies
g?1 dry-weight peat. This study revealed that Lastensuo
Bog had a highly diverse bacterial community. Most of the
taxonomic groups belonged to thus far poorly
characterized and uncultured bacteria with unknown
physiological role. However, new insights into the
distribution of bacterial taxa and their putative roles
in organic carbon break down within the bog ecosystem
have been obtained and an important baseline for further
studies has been established.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 832-859 |
Number of pages | 27 |
Journal | Open Journal of Ecology |
Volume | 4 |
Issue number | 13 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2014 |
MoE publication type | A1 Journal article-refereed |
Keywords
- ombotrophic bog
- peat
- sequencing
- bacterial community