LINKING BIOLOGICAL AND FUNCTIONAL DIVERSITY OF BACTERIOPLANKTON COMMUNITIES WITH DYNAMIC ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS ALONG THE POTOMAC RIVER ESTUARY

Estuaries are among the most productive ecosystems in the world and are at risk from climate change impacts. These dynamic ecosystems are affected by a variety of abiotic and biotic factors from both marine and freshwater sources. Estuaries are microbially diverse and spatiotemporally heterogeneous in microbial abundance, metabolic activity, and community structure due to natural physical and chemical gradients. Microbial communities aid in maintaining estuarine health by nutrient cycling, degrading certain contaminants, and serve as a food source to other organisms. Despite their ecological significance, bacterioplankton in particular are often overlooked in climate change models and research. Due to their ability to adapt quickly to changing environmental variables, they are ideal biological indicators of disturbance. The tidal fresh portion of the Potomac River Estuary presents a unique ecosystem to study the effects of climate change on microbial dynamics. There is a paucity of data on the biological and functional diversity of microorganisms present in the Potomac River, a major tributary of the Chesapeake Bay. This dissertation characterizes bacterioplankton dynamics in this estuary using a combination of 16S rRNA and metagenomics in relation to environmental parameters (nutrients, salinity, temperature, and dissolved oxygen) with the goal of developing biological indicators to determine estuarine health and resilience under a changing climate.

Author

• Berger, Alexis

• Anoxia
• Bacterioplankton
• Estuarine
• Metagenomics
• Salinity

Identifier

hdl:1920/15228

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:MARS:1920/15228