Bacterial biomass and activity in the marginal ice zone of the northern Barents Sea

Bacteria in the Arctic Waters are well adapted to low temperatures and play a key role in the transformation of organic matter. However, the activity of planktonic bacteria at cellular level remains poorly understood. In this study, we use fluorescent markers (4′,6′-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI), 5-cyano-2,3-ditolyl tetrazolium chloride (CTC), Live/Dead BacLight viability kit) to discriminate between bacterial cells with a variety of physiological activities in the 0–200 m water column and sinking particles. During two field studies (July 2003 and 2004), we covered nine stations in the northern Barents Sea. The median bacterial abundance (DAPI staining) in the upper 50 m layer was 0.9×106 cells ml−1 (range 0.2–3.2×106 cells ml−1) in 2003 and 0.5×106 cells ml−1 (range 0.2–1.0×106 cells ml−1) in 2004. Bacteria with sufficient electron transport activity to be stained with CTC were on average 10% of the total count and ca. 20% of the total cells had intact cell membranes. In the water column, proxies of substrate availability (POC, PON, chlorophyll a, primary production) and bacterial production (thymidine and leucine uptake) correlated strongly with total bacterial count, CTC-stained cells and cells with ‘leaky’ membrane (stained with propidium iodine), but not with the concentration of cells with intact cell membrane. Contrary to expectations, the proportion of CTC-stained bacteria was not higher in the sinking particles (captured with sediment traps) compared to the ambient water. However, out of the bacteria with intact cell membranes, a higher proportion scored as CTC positive in the aggregates compared to the ambient water. Bacterial cells with ‘leaky’ cell membranes formed the largest part of total cell count in all samples, and accumulated in sites with high microbial activity (sinking aggregates, chlorophyll maxima, layers of high primary and bacterial production). We hypothesize that the source of the bacterial cells with ‘leaky’ cell membranes was metabolically the most active fraction of the bacterial assemblage (stained with CTC).