Community structure of sulfate reducing bacteria in the sediment of the arctic Smeerenburgfjorden

The community structure of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) of a marine Arctic sediment (Smeerenburgfjorden, Svalbard) was characterized by both fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) by using group- and genus-specific 16S rRNA-targeted oligonucleotide probes. Samples stored in PBS-ethanol were diluted and treated by mild sonication. A 10-ml aliquot of a 1:40 dilution was filtered onto a 0.2-mm-pore-size type GTTP polycarbonate filter (Millipore, Eschborn, Germany). Hybridization and microscopic counting of hybridized and 49,69-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI)-stained cells were performed as described previously from Snaidr et al. (1997, http://aem.asm.org/content/63/7/2884.full.pdf). Details of probes and formamide concentrations which were used are listed in futher details.. Means were calculated by using 10 to 20 randomly chosen fields for each filter section, which corresponded to 800 to 1,000 DAPI-stained cells. Counting results were always corrected by subtracting signals observed with probe NON338. The SRB community was dominated by members of the Desulfosarcina-Desulfococcus group. This group accounted for up to 73% of the SRB detected. The predominance was shown to be a common feature for different stations along the coast of Svalbard. In a top-to-bottom approach we aimed to further resolve the composition of this large group of SRB by using probes for cultivated genera. While this approach failed, directed cloning of probe-targeted genes encoding 16S rRNA was successful and resulted in sequences which were all affiliated with the Desulfosarcina-Desulfococcus group. A group of clone sequences (group SVAL1) most closely related to Desulfosarcina variabilis (91.2% sequence similarity) was dominant and was shown to be most abundant in situ, accounting for up to 54.8% of the total SRB detected.

Age and alkenone-derived Holocene sea-surface temperature records of sediment core M40-4-SL78

This Special Issue of The Holocene contains 16 research papers based on a symposium at the 11th International Meeting of the European Union of Geosciences held in Strasbourg in April 2001. The aim of the symposium was a state-of-the-art assessment of empirical studies of postglacial marine and terrestrial climatic archives and their integration with numerical climate models. This editorial places the individual papers in the broader context of natural climate variability and anthropogenic impacts on the global climate system, regional differences in climate between maritime and continental areas, and the need for an improved theoretical basis for understanding the underlying causes of environmental change. The focus of the Special Issue is the dynamic and relatively well-understood climate of the North Atlantic and the European realm, where, in relation to the steepest offshore temperature gradient on Earth, observational data are abundant and many recent advances have been made in climate reconstruction from proxy archives. The editorial also contains a summary and overview of the papers included in the four main sections of the Special Issue, which emphasize: (1) numerical modelling experiments; (2) models of glacier buildup and equilibrium-line altitude; (3) marine and terrestrial proxy records of climatic change; and (4) multiproxy palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of a Portuguese lagoonal system.