The role of microorganisms in the cycling of sedimentary organic carbon is a crucial one. To better understand relationships between molecular composition of a potentially bioavailable fraction of organic matter and microbial populations, bacterial and archaeal communities were characterized using pyrosequencing-based 16S rRNA gene analysis in surface (top 30 cm) and subsurface/deeper sediments...

The Roseobacter group is one of the predominant lineages in the marine environment. While most investigations focus on pelagic roseobacters, the distribution and metabolic potential of benthic representatives is less understood. In this study, the diversity of the Roseobacter group was characterized in sediment and water samples along the German/Scandinavian North Sea coast by 16S rRNA gene ana...

We report the molecular and hydrogen–isotopic compositions of fatty acids extracted from suspended particulate organic matter (POM) and surface sediments at three stations off the southern California coast: Santa Barbara Basin, Santa Monica Basin, and the Gulf of Santa Catalina. Values of dD for individual fatty acids ranged from 237‰ to 73‰ in POM and from 216‰ to 124‰ in sediments. For most f...

The rapid economic development in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region in South China in the last three decades has had a significant impact on the local environment. Estuarine sediment is a major sink for contaminants and nutrients in the surrounding ecosystem. The accumulation of trace metals in sediments may cause serious environmental problems in the aquatic system. Thirty sediment cores were...

Despite significant implications of viral activity in sediment ecosystems, there are limited data describing how sediment viral assemblages respond to broader ecosystem changes. To document this, the spatial and temporal dynamics of viral and bacterial abundance (BA) and changes in the morphological distribution of viruses were examined within three salinity regions over 2 years. Viral abundanc...

Concentrations of perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) were measured in surface waters and sediments from the Coosa River watershed to examine their distribution downstream of a suspected source. Samples from eight sites were analyzed using liquid chromatographytandem mass spectrometry. To examine PFC bioaccumulation, sediments were also utilized in 28-d exposures with the aquatic oligochaete, Lumbr...

Seven of surface sediments, one sediment core and two mussel samples were collected from the Qingdao coastal sea of the western Yellow Sea and analyzed to determine the horizontal distribution, deposition flux, and toxicity equivalency (TEQs) of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs). The total PCDD/Fs concentrations in the surface sediments ranged between 10.7 and 428 ng...

We examined temporal differences in sedimentary production of monomethylmercury (MMHg) at three sites in Long Island Sound (LIS). Sediment-phase concentrations of Hg species decreased from west to east in LIS surface sediments, following the trend of organic matter. However, Hg methylation potentials, measured by incubation with an isotopic tracer (200Hg), increased from west to east. 200Hg met...

Much more attention has been paid to the actinobacterial community in soils or water columns of aquatic habitats. However, there are few studies on their composition and diversity in lake sediments. Here, we used denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and clone libraries of partial 16S rRNA gene to study the spatial variations of actinobacterial communities across 4 seasons in the surface sedi...

The long term survival of fecal indicator organisms (FIOs) and human pathogenic microorganisms in sediments is important from a water quality, human health and ecological perspective. Typically, both bacteria and viruses strongly associate with particulate matter present in freshwater, estuarine and marine environments. This association tends to be stronger in finer textured sediments and is st...