Isabel Ferrera

22. Transient Changes in Bacterioplankton Communities Induced by the Submarine Volcanic Eruption of El Hierro (Canary Islands)

22. Transient Changes in Bacterioplankton Communities Induced by the Submarine Volcanic Eruption of El Hierro (Canary Islands)

Isabel Ferrera, Jordi Mas, Elisenda Taberna, Joan Sanz, Olga Sánchez

ABSTRACT The submarine volcanic eruption occurring near El Hierro (Canary Islands) in October 2011 provided a unique opportunity to determine the effects of such events on the microbial populations of the surrounding waters. The birth of a new underwater volcano produced a large plume of vent material detectable from space that led to abrupt changes in the physical-chemical properties of the water column. We combined flow cytometry and 454-pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA gene amplicons (V1–V3 regions for Bacteria and V3–V5 for Archaea) to monitor the area around the volcano through the eruptive and post-eruptive phases (November 2011 to April 2012). Flow cytometric analyses revealed higher abundance and relative activity (expressed as a percentage of high-nucleic acid content cells) of heterotrophic prokaryotes during the eruptive process as compared to post-eruptive stages. Changes observed in populations detectable by flow cytometry were more evident at depths closer to the volcano (~70–200 m), coinciding
Transient Changes in Bacterioplankton Communities Induced by the Submarine Volcanic Eruption of El Hierro (Canary Islands) – ResearchGate. Available from: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/272156135_Transient_Changes_in_Bacterioplankton_Communities_Induced_by_the_Submarine_Volcanic_Eruption_of_El_Hierro_%28Canary_Islands%29 [accessed Apr 6, 2015].