The diverse microbial community in the ocean, encompassing various metabolic types, interacts with the wide array of compounds in the dissolved organic matter (DOM) pool, thereby influencing the ocean’s biogeochemical state and, consequently, the global climate. Our understanding of the interactions between specific DOM constituents and microbial consortia remains limited, necessitating further refinement to achieve a mechanistic comprehension of the relationship between the DOM field and the microbial metabolic network. Attaining this level of understanding is crucial for accurately predicting the marine ecosystem’s response to natural and anthropogenic perturbations. To address this gap, we developed a bacterial population model based on the von Foerster equation. This model aims to describe the complex microbial-mediated degradation of gelatinous zooplankton (hereinafter ‘jellyfish’) detritus, as an important, but largely overlooked source of DOM in the ocean. By considering microbial growth and decay, as well as DOM uptake, and nutrient release, the model is able to describe the microbial community’s life cycle, and the biochemical transformations of the jellyfish-derived organic matter. We fitted the model to results of laboratory microcosm experiments conducted to simulate scenarios experienced by ambient microbiomes during decay of two different jellyfish species in the northern Adriatic Sea. By interpreting the fitted parameters, we highlight the differences in the microbial response to different jellyfish species, namely how these affect the microbial community composition and the release of nutrients. This model has been specifically designed for integration with ocean circulation models to create a comprehensive physical-biogeochemical ocean model. Such an extended model can be utilized for multi-scale simulations to assess the system’s response to jellyfish and jellyfish-derived organic matter. Given that jellyfish blooms may become more prevalent under future ocean scenarios, this modeling approach is essential for understanding their potential impact on marine ecosystems.

中文翻译：

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浮游细菌群落对凝胶状海洋浮游动物水华崩溃的响应的动态种群模型及其对海洋营养平衡的影响


海洋中包含各种代谢类型的多样化微生物群落与溶解有机物（DOM）池中的多种化合物相互作用，从而影响海洋的生物地球化学状态，从而影响全球气候。我们对特定 DOM 成分和微生物群落之间相互作用的理解仍然有限，需要进一步完善以实现对 DOM 场和微生物代谢网络之间关系的机械理解。达到这种水平的理解对于准确预测海洋生态系统对自然和人为扰动的响应至关重要。为了解决这一差距，我们开发了基于冯福斯特方程的细菌种群模型。该模型旨在描述凝胶状浮游动物（以下简称“水母”）碎屑复杂的微生物介导降解过程，这是海洋中重要但在很大程度上被忽视的 DOM 来源。通过考虑微生物的生长和腐烂以及 DOM 的吸收和营养物的释放，该模型能够描述微生物群落的生命周期以及水母来源的有机物的生化转化。我们将该模型与实验室微观世界实验的结果进行了拟合，该实验旨在模拟亚得里亚海北部两种不同水母物种腐烂过程中环境微生物组所经历的场景。通过解释拟合参数，我们强调了微生物对不同水母物种的反应差异，即它们如何影响微生物群落组成和营养物质的释放。该模型专门设计用于与海洋环流模型集成，以创建综合的物理生物地球化学海洋模型。 这种扩展模型可用于多尺度模拟，以评估系统对水母和水母衍生有机物的响应。鉴于水母大量繁殖在未来海洋情景下可能会变得更加普遍，这种建模方法对于了解它们对海洋生态系统的潜在影响至关重要。