Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

About: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is a nonprofit organization based out in Falmouth, Massachusetts, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Mantle (geology). The organization has 5685 authors who have published 18396 publications receiving 1202050 citations. The organization is also known as: WHOI.

Phylogenetic diversity of aggregate-attached vs. free-living marine bacterial assemblages

Abstract: The phylogenetic diversity of macroaggregate-attached vs. free-living marine bacteria, co-occurring in the same water mass, was compared. Bacterial diversity and phylogcnetic identity were inferred by analyzing polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplified, cloned ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes. Ribosomal RNA genes from macroaggregatc-associated bacteria were fundamentally different from those of free-living bacterioplankton. Most rRNA types recovered from the free-living bacterioplankton were closely related to a phenotypically undcscribcd (Y Proteobacteria group, previously detected in surface waters of North Pacific and Atlantic central ocean gyres. The results suggest that members of this phylogenetically distinct, (Y proteobacterial group are abundant free-living bactcrioplankters in coastal, as well as open-ocean habitats. In contrast, most macroaggregate-associated rRNA clones were closely related to Cytophuga, Planctomyce.s, or y Proteobacteria, within the domain Bacteria. These data indicate that specific bacterial populations, different from those which predominate in free-living bacterioplankton, develop on marine phytodetrital aggregates. The inferred properties of attached bacterial assemblages have significant implications for models of microbially mediated transformation of particulate organic material.

Riverine coupling of biogeochemical cycles between land, oceans, and atmosphere

Abstract: Streams, rivers, lakes, and other inland waters are important agents in the coupling of biogeochemical cycles between continents, atmosphere, and oceans. The depiction of these roles in global-scale assessments of carbon (C) and other bioactive elements remains limited, yet recent findings suggest that C discharged to the oceans is only a fraction of that entering rivers from terrestrial ecosystems via soil respiration, leaching, chemical weathering, and physical erosion. Most of this C influx is returned to the atmosphere from inland waters as carbon dioxide (CO2) or buried in sedimentary deposits within impoundments, lakes, floodplains, and other wetlands. Carbon and mineral cycles are coupled by both erosion–deposition processes and chemical weathering, with the latter producing dissolved inorganic C and carbonate buffering capacity that strongly modulate downstream pH, biological production of calcium-carbonate shells, and CO2 outgassing in rivers, estuaries, and coastal zones. Human activities substantially affect all of these processes.

Methane-Consuming Archaea Revealed by Directly Coupled Isotopic and Phylogenetic Analysis

Abstract: Microorganisms living in anoxic marine sediments consume more than 80% of the methane produced in the world's oceans In addition to single-species aggregates, consortia of metabolically interdependent bacteria and archaea are found in methane-rich sediments A combination of fluorescence in situ hybridization and secondary ion mass spectrometry shows that cells belonging to one specific archaeal group associated with the Methanosarcinales were all highly depleted in ^(13)C (to values of –96‰) This depletion indicates assimilation of isotopically light methane into specific archaeal cells Additional microbial species apparently use other carbon sources, as indicated by significantly higher ^(13)C/^(12)C ratios in their cell carbon Our results demonstrate the feasibility of simultaneous determination of the identity and the metabolic activity of naturally occurring microorganisms

A one‐dimensional model of the seasonal thermocline II. The general theory and its consequences

Abstract: A theory of the layer formation due to surface processes is presented, which is more general than that used in the preceding paper I. Convection due to heating at depth and cooling at the surface is included, as well as the mechanical stirring due to wind action. The theory is applicable to arbitrary forms of heating, including intermittent or continuous processes, and could be used to investigate diurnal as well as seasonal effects. A detailed application is made to the case treated approximately in I, for which a solution is now obtained in analytic form. The results obtained allow a quantitative, as well as qualitative, comparison with the ocean. It is found that reasonable layer depths are predicted using measured heating rates, and a value of the turbulent kinetic energy input to the water deduced from the mean surface stress. The effects of heating at depth can be comparable with wind stirring, even when the temperature of the upper layer is increasing. During the winter, convection due to surface cooling dominates the processes which deepen the layer. DOI: 10.1111/j.2153-3490.1967.tb01462.x