Cryptic cycling by electroactive bacterioplankton in Trout Bog Lake
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The genetic potential for extracellular electron transfer (EET)-based metabolism has been shown to be a prevailing feature of humic lakes where bacterioplankton may be able to use EET to cycle dissolved organic matter (DOM) extracellularly between oxidized and reduced states, but measurable abiotic features resulting from this phenomenon have yet to be demonstrated. We observed an anoxygenic photosynthetic Chlorobium sp. bloom each summer in Trout Bog Lake in northern WI, USA. Given this bloom’s characteristics, we hypothesized that EET-based metabolisms of Chlorobium sp. and accompanying bacteria cycle DOM between oxidized and reduced states with seasonal or diel-timescale oscillations; therefore, we anticipated this could be measured by weekly and subdaily sampling. We collected vertical profiles on these timescales using a multiparameter sonde, including oxidation-reduction potential measurement, and we assayed for inorganic electron donors. We also developed and deployed a buoy to measure electric current flow between many pairs of electrodes simultaneously. Using metagenomics analyses, we examined the EET genes and other oxidoreductases of bacteria from water column samples at select depths and from biofilms that developed on electrodes at similar depths. Our results indicate the occurrence of diel electron cycling between phototrophic oxidation (electrotrophic metabolism) and anaerobic respiration (electrogenic metabolism), likely involving DOM. We also observed a gradual seasonal increase in hypolimnion oxidation-reduction potential. These diel and seasonal patterns have implications for carbon emissions and the ecology of electroactive bacteria in lakes.
IMPORTANCE
We investigated the physical, chemical, and redox characteristics of a bog lake and electrodes hung therein to test the hypothesis that dissolved organic matter is being cycled between oxidized and reduced states by electroactive bacterioplankton powered by phototrophy. To do so we performed field-based analyses on multiple timescales using both established and novel instrumentation. We paired these analyses with recently developed bioinformatics pipelines for metagenomics data to investigate genes that enable electroactive metabolism and accompanying metabolisms. Our results are consistent with our hypothesis and yet upend some of our other expectations. Our findings have implications for understanding greenhouse gas emissions from lakes, including electroactivity as an integral part of lake metabolism throughout more of the anoxic parts of lakes and for a longer portion of the summer than expected. Our results also give a sense of what electroactivity occurs at given depths and provide a strong basis for future studies.
