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Nitrogen fixing ( diazotrophic ) phytoplankton: e.g. Trichodesmium. 1 μm. Croccosphaera watsonii. 1 mm. Image: Annette Hynes. Image: WHOI. Where are diazotrophs? Trichodesmium. LaRoche and Breitbarth (2005) See also Sohm et al (2011), Luo et a (2012).
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Nitrogen fixing (diazotrophic) phytoplankton: e.g. Trichodesmium 1 μm Croccosphaera watsonii 1 mm Image: Annette Hynes Image: WHOI
Where are diazotrophs?Trichodesmium LaRoche and Breitbarth (2005) See also Sohm et al (2011), Luo et a (2012)
Trade-offs defining diazotrophs Relative to others, nitrogen fixers have • freedom from limitation by fixed nitrogen • high cellular iron demand • Nitrogenase • low maximum growth rate
Slow max growth rate Moore et al (1995) Temperature dependent growth rate of picocyanobacteria Breitbarth et al (2005) Temperature dependent growth rate of Trichodesmium
Trade-offs define biogeography Observations of Trichodesmium: Breitbarth and LaRoche (2005) Model, all diazotrophs: Monteiro et al (2010)
Interpret in terms of resource competition Ambient Fe concentration = minimum subsistence concentration Monteiro et al (2011) - following Tilman (1977), …
Why slow growth rate? • Energetic cost of breaking triple bond • Intracellular oxygen management • Intracellular iron management Nitrogen fixing photo-autotroph
Respiration and growth rate • E. coli • Glycerol limited continuous culture • Farmer and Jones (1976) Specific respiration rate (mol O2 (g cell)-1 s-1) Dilution rate (= growth rate) (h-1)
Respiration and growth rate Slope related to efficiency (1/yield) • E. coli • Glycerol limited continuous culture • Farmer and Jones (1976) Specific respiration (mol O2 (g cell)-1 s-1) Intercept: maintenance respiration Dilution rate (= growth rate) (h-1)
Azotobactervinelandii • Free living soil bacteria • Occupies aerobic environments • Fixes nitrogen asymbiotically 0.5μm Post et al, Arch. Microbiol (1982)
Specific substrate consumption and growth rate as function of external O2 Increasing ambient [O2] • Azotobactervinlandii • Kuhler and Oelze (1988)
Specific substrate consumption and growth rate as function of external O2 • For same specific substrate supply, higher growth rate in lower oxygen environment • Strong impact on maintenance uptake/respiration • Oxygen management to preserve nitrogenase • Azotobactervinlandii • Kuhler and Oelze (1988)
Model • Conserve internal fluxes of mass, electrons and energy • McCarty (1965), Vallino et al (1996) … • Biophysical model of substrate and O2 uptake • Pasciak and Gavis (1974), Staal et al (2003), … O2 CO2 Molecular diffusion O2 CO2 “biomass” C5H7O2N pyruvate sucrose NH4+ N2 Keisuke Inomura
Oxygen management over-rides energetic demand • Maintenance (intercept) very sensitive to cell size • Modeled yields too high • “biomass” stoichiometry? • exudation of fixed N? Keisuke Inomura
Summary • Provided appropriate physiological trade-offs and environment are imposed, diverse system will plausibly self-organize • For diazotrophs, slow population growth rate is a key trait • Cartoon “flux balance”/biophysical model captures key aspects of Azotobactervinelandiigrowth • Model for e.g. Croccosphaera? • Experimental data for marine organism • More general application…