Microcalorimetric characterization of seasonal metabolic trends in marine microcosms

A microcalorimetric and oximetric circulation system has been used to describe the emergence of seasonal adaptative changes occurring in marine microcosms at the water-sediment interface. The microcosms were prepared from three stations: one estuarine and two lagoonal. They were submitted to the same acute eutrophication, using peptone, and the evolutions shown by power-time and oxygen-time curves were compared over a 2-yr period. The metabolic heat productions and their oxidative counterparts are well correlated with seasonal trends. In summer, the microcalorimetric curves are typically unimodal, with very low dispersion, and a low thermodynamic steady state is attained in a few hours (40–50 μW), indicating an efficient, integrated regulatory mechanism; oxygen conditions evolute towards anoxia within 6 to 8 h. In winter, the power-time curves are typically sigmoid, with low dispersion; the thermodynamic steady state attained indicates a high maintenance energy requirement (140–150 μW), probably due to microbial populations less adapted to eutrophication stress. In winter, oxygen depletion is only partial and a plateau is attained within limits of 80 to 40% of initial saturation, and lasts 1 wk at least. Spring and autumn responses are very heterogeneous, varying from summer to winter types and displaying evolutive bimodal patterns. The sea-water-sediment interfaces from different estuarine and lagoonal habitats with distinct physical and chemical characteristics, but subjected to similar environmental and seasonal perturbations, show similar energetic patterns according to the seasons. It is proposed, as a working hypothesis, that the seasonal variations of the microcalorimetric response to experimental eutrophication are the expression of a global homeostatic adaptative memory, determined by natural environmental perturbations. Spring and autumn can be considered as intermediate periods within which a seasonal “adaptative memory” is replaced gradually by another one. The heterogeneity of the microcalorimetric response in spring and autumn microcosms could be related to an asynchronous maturation for the different components of the benthic ecosystem.