Review Article

Patterns of Microbially Driven Carbon Cycling in the Ocean: Links between Extracellular Enzymes and Microbial Communities

Figure 3

Hydrolysis rates of seven polysaccharides and three algal extracts in surface waters (blue bars, right axis) and surficial sediments (red bars, left axis) of Smeerenburgfjord, Svalbard. (pull = pullulan, ara = arabinogalactan, iso = Isochrysis extract, alg = alginic acid, wak = wakame extract, lam = laminarin, fu = fucoidan, spir = Spirulina extract, xyl = xylan, and chon = chondroitin sulfate). All substrates were hydrolyzed in sediments, but only a subset was hydrolyzed in the water column. Note that the water column and sediment axes are offset by 3 orders of magnitude. Differences in hydrolysis patterns cannot be explained by simple scaling factors, such as differences in cell numbers. The enzymatic capabilities of these sedimentary and seawater communities are different. Data replotted from [14].
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