Relationship between bacterioplankton richness, respiration, and production in the southern North Sea

We investigated the relationship between bacterioplankton production (BP), respiration (BR), and community composition measured by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism in the southern North Sea over a seasonal cycle. Major changes in bacterioplankton richness were apparent from April to December. While cell-specific BP decreased highly significantly with increasing bacterioplankton richness, cell-specific BR was found to be variable along the richness gradient, suggesting that bacterioplankton respiration is rather independent from shifts in the bacterial community composition. As a consequence, the bacterial growth efficiency [BGE = BP/(BP + BR)] was negatively related to bacterioplankton richness, explaining similar to 43% of the variation in BGE. Our results indicate that despite the observed shifts in the community composition, the main function of the bacterioplankton, the remineralization of dissolved organic carbon to CO2, is rather stable.