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Molecular Tools for Studying Biogeochemical Cycling in Salt Marshes

Molecular Studies of Bacteria

  • Chapter
Concepts and Controversies in Tidal Marsh Ecology

Abstract

Understanding biogeochemical processes in salt marshes will help elucidate their role as essential habitats. Since microbial activity accounts for nearly all of the biogeochemical cycling that occurs in the marsh environment, monitoring bacteria and their activity is fundamental to assessing marshes as sites for biogeochemical change. In the past, this has been accomplished using approaches that estimated the average response of the entire population of micro-organisms. These studies have proven very useful for computing overall fluxes and secondary production. However, questions of diversity, population dynamics, microbial ecology, and the role of specific bacteria responsible for a biogeochemical transformation have been difficult to approach using the traditional, bulk rate techniques. The recent revolution in biochemical methods has allowed microbiologists to now identify specific groups of bacteria in a natural sample. This is done by targeting specific macromolecules in the bacterial cells such as fatty acids, proteins, and nucleic acids to characterize the various microbial members of or community independent of the other bacteria and eukaryotes present in the sample. Such studies have begun to provide information on the variety, distribution, and gene regulation of particular bacteria responsible for a given biogeochemical process. Although a comprehensive overview of molecular techniques will not be feasible in this chapter, we shall discuss some principles of applying biochemical analysis to complex microbial communities. It is hoped the data obtained from molecular studies in marsh habitats in the future will lead to a better understanding of the linkages between the structure and the function of the microbial communities that mediate biogeochemical cycling in the environment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, 71 Dudley Road, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901-8521, USA

    Lee Kerkhof & David J. Scala

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  1. Lee Kerkhof
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  2. David J. Scala
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  1. New Jersey Marine Sciences Consortium, Fort Hancock, NJ, USA

    Michael P. Weinstein

  2. Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Daniel A. Kreeger

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© 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Kerkhof, L., Scala, D.J. (2002). Molecular Tools for Studying Biogeochemical Cycling in Salt Marshes. In: Weinstein, M.P., Kreeger, D.A. (eds) Concepts and Controversies in Tidal Marsh Ecology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-47534-0_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-47534-0_20

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-7923-6019-3

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