Title | Diversity and biomass accumulation in cultured phototrophic biofilms |
Abstract | In the present study, biomass development and changes in community composition of phototrophic biofilms grown under
different controlled ambient conditions (light, temperature and flow) were examined. Source communities were taken from a
wastewater treatment plant and used to inoculate growth surfaces in a semi-continuous-flow microcosm. We recorded biofilm
growth curves in cultures over a period of 30 days across 12 experiments. Biovolume of phototrophs and community composition
for taxonomic shifts were also obtained using light and electron microscopy. Species richness in the cultured biofilms was greatly
reduced with respect to the natural samples, and diversity decreased even further during biofilm development. Diadesmis
confervacea, Phormidium spp., Scenedesmus spp. and Synechocystis spp. were identified as key taxa in the microcosm. While a
significant positive effect of irradiance on biofilm growth could be identified, impacts of temperature and flow rate on biofilm
development and diversity were less evident. We discuss the hypothesis that biofilm development could have been subject to
multistability, i.e. the existence of several possible stable biofilm configurations for the same set of environmental parameters;
small variations in the species composition might have been sufficient to switch between these different configurations and thus
have contributed to overwriting the original effects of temperature and flow velocity. |
Source | European journal of phycology (Print) 49 (3), pp. 384–394 |
Keywords | diversityflowlightmicrocosmmultistabilityphototrophic biofilmstemperaturevariability |
Journal | European journal of phycology (Print) |
Editor | CUP,, Cambridge, Regno Unito |
Year | 2014 |
Type | Articolo in rivista |
DOI | 10.1080/09670262.2014.948075 |
Authors | Di Pippo F, Ellwood NTW, Guzzon A, Bohn A, Congestri R. |
Text | 300704 2014 10.1080/09670262.2014.948075 diversity flow light microcosm multistability phototrophic biofilms temperature variability Diversity and biomass accumulation in cultured phototrophic biofilms Di Pippo F, Ellwood NTW, Guzzon A, Bohn A, Congestri R. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Rome Roma Tre , 00149, Rome, Italy LBA Laboratory for Biology of Algae, Department of Biology, University of Rome Tor Vergata , 00133 Rome, Italy Instituto de Tecnologia Quimica e Biologica, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2780 157 Oeiras, Portugal In the present study, biomass development and changes in community composition of phototrophic biofilms grown under different controlled ambient conditions light, temperature and flow were examined. Source communities were taken from a wastewater treatment plant and used to inoculate growth surfaces in a semi continuous flow microcosm. We recorded biofilm growth curves in cultures over a period of 30 days across 12 experiments. Biovolume of phototrophs and community composition for taxonomic shifts were also obtained using light and electron microscopy. Species richness in the cultured biofilms was greatly reduced with respect to the natural samples, and diversity decreased even further during biofilm development. Diadesmis confervacea, Phormidium spp., Scenedesmus spp. and Synechocystis spp. were identified as key taxa in the microcosm. While a significant positive effect of irradiance on biofilm growth could be identified, impacts of temperature and flow rate on biofilm development and diversity were less evident. We discuss the hypothesis that biofilm development could have been subject to multistability, i.e. the existence of several possible stable biofilm configurations for the same set of environmental parameters; small variations in the species composition might have been sufficient to switch between these different configurations and thus have contributed to overwriting the original effects of temperature and flow velocity. 49 Published version Di Pippo et al. 2014 Di_Pippo_et_al_2014.pdf Articolo in rivista CUP, 0967 0262 European journal of phycology Print European journal of phycology Print Eur. j. phycol. Print European journal of phycology. Print francesca.dipippo DI PIPPO FRANCESCA |