Abstract:

Dataset contains abundance data for archaeal amoA, betaproteobacterial amoA, comammox amoA, nirS, nrfA, and bacterial 16S rRNA genes from sediment cores collected from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON) saltmarsh mesocosm facility in Cocodrie, Louisiana, (twelve hydrologically-isolated mesocosm tanks planted with Spartina alterniflora, made up of unoiled controls and three different oil exposure levels). Samples were collected on three sampling dates before oiling and four sampling dates after oiling.

Suggested Citation:

Bernhard, A.E.. 2020. Effects of oil treatment on abundance of ammonia-oxidizing archaea, ammonia-oxidizing bacteria, comammox bacteria, denitrifying bacteria, DNRA bacteria, and total bacteria in Louisiana salt marsh mesocosms, 2018-07-18 to 2019-08-20. Distributed by: GRIIDC, Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. doi:10.7266/n7-77qh-ns97

Purpose:

To document the effects of different levels of oil on abundance of nitrogen cycling microbes.

Data Parameters and Units:

Date: Date sample was collected (DD-Mon-YYYY); Sample #: Unique sample number; Treatment: Level of oiling in treatment tank (control, low, medium, high); AOA: ammonia oxidizing archaea measured by archaeal amoA (ammonia monooxygenase) gene abundance (gene copies/gr wet wt sediment); AOB: ammonia-oxidizing bacteria measured by betaproteobacterial amoA gene abundance (gene copies/gr wet wt sediment); Bac16S: bacterial 16S rRNA gene abundance (gene copies/gr dry wt sediment); COM: comammox bacteria measured by comammox amoA gene abundance (gene copies/gr wet wt sediment); nirS: denitrifying bacteria measured by nirS nitrite reductase gene abundance (gene copies/gr wet wt sediment); nrfA: dissimilatory nitrogen reducers to ammonium (DNRA) measured by nrfA gene abundance (gene copies/gr wet wt sediment).

Methods:

Oil was applied to the mesocosms the first week of July 2019. Light sweet crude oil evaporatively weathered to ~25% by weight was applied to three tanks each, in three concentration levels: low=0.1 L oil/m2, medium=0.5 L oil/m2, high=3.0 L/m2. Three tanks were not oiled (control). Gene abundances were generated by QPCR using published primers and protocols. AOA: Arch26F/Arch417R, AOB: amoA1R/amoA2R-TC, Bac16S rRNA: GM3/338R, Com: comaA-244f_d/comaA-659r_c and comaA-659r_d, nirS: nirS1F/nirS3R, nrfA: nrfAF2aw/nrfAR1.

Instruments:

QPCR was performed on either a BioRad iCycler or BioRad CFX Connect instrument.

Individual Files: