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. 2024 Jul 3:15:1398021.
doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1398021. eCollection 2024.

Manganese reduction and associated microbial communities in Antarctic surface sediments

Lea C Wunder  1 , Inga Breuer  1 , Graciana Willis-Poratti  1   2   3 , David A Aromokeye  1 , Susann Henkel  4 , Tim Richter-Heitmann  1 , Xiuran Yin  1   5 , Michael W Friedrich  1   6
Affiliations

Manganese reduction and associated microbial communities in Antarctic surface sediments

Lea C Wunder et al. Front Microbiol. .

Abstract

The polar regions are the fastest warming places on earth. Accelerated glacial melting causes increased supply of nutrients such as metal oxides (i.e., iron and manganese oxides) into the surrounding environment, such as the marine sediments of Potter Cove, King George Island/Isla 25 de Mayo (West Antarctic Peninsula). Microbial manganese oxide reduction and the associated microbial communities are poorly understood in Antarctic sediments. Here, we investigated this process by geochemical measurements of in situ sediment pore water and by slurry incubation experiments which were accompanied by 16S rRNA sequencing. Members of the genus Desulfuromusa were the main responder to manganese oxide and acetate amendment in the incubations. Other organisms identified in relation to manganese and/or acetate utilization included Desulfuromonas, Sva1033 (family of Desulfuromonadales) and unclassified Arcobacteraceae. Our data show that distinct members of Desulfuromonadales are most active in organotrophic manganese reduction, thus providing strong evidence of their relevance in manganese reduction in permanently cold Antarctic sediments.

Keywords: Antarctic; Arcobacteraceae; Desulfuromusa; Potter Cove; Sva1033; manganese reduction; marine surface sediment; organic carbon degradation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Sediment cores were taken at STA 01 in Potter Cove, King George Island/Isla 25 de Mayo, in close proximity to the Fourcade glacier. Map created with QGIS 3.34.3, bathymetry data (Neder et al., 2022) updated from Jerosch et al. (2015), basemap data from SCAR Antarctic Digital Database 2023, rock outcrop from Gerrish (2020) manually smoothed.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Geochemical parameters in the pore water of duplicate cores from STA 01 over sediment depths. (A) Dissolved manganese. (B) Dissolved Fe2+. (C) Sulfate. Duplicate cores STA01-3 (●) and STA01-5 (▲) of the same station are distinguished as indicated.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Dissolved manganese concentration in the incubation experiment over time. Different treatments are displayed by color and line type, and incubation triplicates by shape. The lines connect calculated means per treatment. Note, acetate and DIC treatment data points overlap.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Relative abundance of 16S rRNA gene (A–D: DNA) and 16S rRNA (E–H: RNA) of most stimulated bacterial taxa (see text) in incubation experiment. Different treatments are displayed by color and line type, and incubation triplicates by shape. The lines connect calculated means per treatment. Sva1033 is a family of Desulfuromonadales. Plotted Arcobacteraceae were unclassified on genus level. Treatment birnessite + DIC was conducted separately and DIC replicate C is the associated control (see Supplementary material). For time point day 0, the associated slurry sample is plotted for all treatments (Supplementary Figures S5, S6). Note the different y-scales.
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