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Title: Groundwater–surface water mixing shifts ecological assembly processes and stimulates organic carbon turnover

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11237· OSTI ID:1253864

Environmental transition zones are associated with geochemical gradients that overcome energy limitations to microbial metabolism, resulting in biogeochemical hot spots and moments. Riverine systems where groundwater mixes with surface water (the hyporheic zone) are spatially complex and temporally dynamic, making development of predictive models challenging. Spatial and temporal variations in hyporheic zone microbial communities are a key, but understudied, component of riverine biogeochemical function. To investigate the coupling among groundwater-surface water mixing, microbial communities, and biogeochemistry we applied ecological theory, aqueous biogeochemistry, DNA sequencing, and ultra-high resolution organic carbon profiling to field samples collected across times and locations representing a broad range of mixing conditions. Mixing of groundwater and surface water resulted in a shift from transport-driven stochastic dynamics to a deterministic microbial structure associated with elevated biogeochemical rates. While the dynamics of the hyporheic make predictive modeling a challenge, we provide new knowledge that can improve the tractability of such models.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
1253864
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-111962; ncomms11237
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Vol. 7; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 236 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Multi 'omics comparison reveals metabolome biochemistry, not microbiome composition or gene expression, corresponds to elevated biogeochemical function in the hyporheic zone journal November 2018
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At the Nexus of History, Ecology, and Hydrobiogeochemistry: Improved Predictions across Scales through Integration journal April 2018
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Key role of streambed moisture and flash storms for microbial resistance and resilience to long‐term drought journal December 2018
Assessment of Microbial Community Dynamics in River Bank Filtrate Using High-Throughput Sequencing and Flow Cytometry journal November 2018
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Deterministic influences exceed dispersal effects on hydrologically-connected microbiomes: Deterministic assembly of hyporheic microbiomes journal March 2017
The effect of unsteady streamflow and stream-groundwater interactions on oxygen consumption in a sandy streambed journal December 2019
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Profiling the microbial community structure and functional diversity of a dam-regulated river undergoing gravel bar restoration journal January 2020
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Oligotrophic wetland sediments susceptible to shifts in microbiomes and mercury cycling with dissolved organic matter addition journal January 2018
Dynamic changes in dissolved organic matter composition in a Mountain Lake under ice cover and relationships to changes in nutrient cycling and phytoplankton community composition journal December 2019
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Spatial gradients in the characteristics of soil-carbon fractions are associated with abiotic features but not microbial communities journal January 2019
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Bacterial Communities in Ground-and Surface Water Mixing Zone Induced by Seasonal Heavy Extraction of Groundwater text January 2018
Coupling Spatiotemporal Community Assembly Processes to Changes in Microbial Metabolism journal December 2016
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