How do the very small-sized aquatic microbes influence the very large-scale biogeochemical cycles?
Legendre, L.; Rivkin, R.B. (2009). How do the very small-sized aquatic microbes influence the very large-scale biogeochemical cycles?, in: Nihoul, J.C.J. et al. Influence of climate change on the changing Arctic and Sub-Arctic conditions. Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Influence of Climate Change on the Changing Arctic, Liège, Belgium, 8-10 May 2008. NATO Science for Peace and Security Series: C. Environmental Security, : pp. 191-207. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9460-6_14 In: Nihoul, J.C.J.; Kostianoy, A.G. (Ed.) (2009). Influence of climate change on the changing Arctic and Sub-Arctic conditions. Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Influence of Climate Change on the Changing Arctic, Liège, Belgium, 8-10 May 2008. NATO Science for Peace and Security Series: C. Environmental Security. Springer: Dordrecht. ISBN 978-1-4020-9460 -6. xii, 232 pp., more In: NATO Science for Peace and Security Series: C. Environmental Security. Springer: Dordrecht. ISSN 1874-6519, more |  |
| Abstract | Pelagic microbes have major roles in marine systems. There, they dominate the production and cycling of organic matter, and they mediate the biogeochemical cycling of biologically relevant chemical elements and climatically active gases. The present review focuses on general mechanisms that allow the very small-sized marine microbes to influence the very large-scale biogeochemical cycles that are crucial for climate processes. We explore the contrasting (or complementary) ideas that microbes are key components of marine pelagic food webs and biogeochemical cycles because of their physiological characteristics (e.g. high specific metabolic rates) coupled with large standing stocks, or (and) because of their unique positions in pelagic food webs, where they concurrently produce, consume and remineralise organic matter. We examine the hypothesis that the combined action of bottom-up (i.e. environmental) and top-down (i.e. food-web) processes channels inorganic and organic compounds toward microbes, which transform and redirect these compounds toward the environment (as inorganic and organic substances) and the remainder of aquatic food webs. Finally, we explore the responses of microbes and metazoans to climate-driven changes in environmental conditions, with particular reference to the Arctic. |
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