Data_Sheet_1_Microbial Processing of Jellyfish Detritus in the Ocean.zip

When jellyfish blooms decay, sinking jellyfish detrital organic matter (jelly-OM), rich in proteins and characterized by a low C:N ratio, becomes a significant source of OM for marine microorganisms. Yet, the key players and the process of microbial jelly-OM degradation and the consequences for marine ecosystems remain unclear. We simulated the scenario potentially experienced by the coastal pelagic microbiome after the decay of a bloom of the cosmopolitan Aurelia aurita s.l. We show that about half of the jelly-OM is instantly available as dissolved organic matter and thus, exclusively and readily accessible to microbes. During a typical decay of an A. aurita bloom in the northern Adriatic Sea about 100 mg of jelly-OM L–1 becomes available, about 44 μmol L–1 as dissolved organic carbon (DOC), 13 μmol L–1 as total dissolved nitrogen, 11 μmol L–1 of total hydrolyzable dissolved amino acids (THDAA) and 0.6 μmol L–1 PO43–. The labile jelly-OM was degraded within 1.5 days (>98% of proteins, ∼70% of THDAA, 97% of dissolved free amino acids and the entire jelly-DOC pool) by a consortium of Pseudoalteromonas, Alteromonas, and Vibrio. These bacteria accounted for >90% of all metabolically active jelly-OM degraders, exhibiting high bacterial growth efficiencies. This implies that a major fraction of the detrital jelly-OM is rapidly incorporated into biomass by opportunistic bacteria. Microbial processing of jelly-OM resulted in the accumulation of tryptophan, dissolved combined amino acids and inorganic nutrients, with possible implications for biogeochemical cycles.

当水母 blooms 衰减后，沉入水底的富含蛋白质且碳氮比低的浮游生物残骸有机质（水母-OM），成为海洋微生物有机质的重要来源。然而，微生物降解水母-OM 的关键作用者和过程，以及其对海洋生态系统的影响尚不明确。我们模拟了沿岸浮游微生物群在广布型水母 Aurelia aurita s.l. blooms 衰减后可能经历的情景。研究表明，大约一半的水母-OM 立即以溶解有机质的形式存在，从而为微生物提供了独家且易于获取的养分。在典型情况下，北亚得里亚海中 A. aurita blooms 的衰变过程中，大约每升水中会有 100 毫克的水母-OM 变得可用，其中约 44 微摩尔每升为溶解有机碳（DOC），13 微摩尔每升为总溶解氮，11 微摩尔每升为总水解溶解氨基酸（THDAA），以及 0.6 微摩尔每升的 PO43-。易降解的水母-OM 在 1.5 天内（>98% 的蛋白质，约 70% 的 THDAA，97% 的溶解游离氨基酸和全部水母-DOC 池）被由伪气单胞菌、气单胞菌和弧菌组成的群落降解。这些细菌占所有代谢活跃的水母-OM 降解者的超过 90%，表现出高细菌生长效率。这表明，残骸水母-OM 的主要部分迅速被机会主义细菌转化为生物质。微生物对水母-OM 的处理导致色氨酸、溶解结合氨基酸和无机营养物质的积累，这可能对生物地球化学循环产生重要影响。