
%0 Journal Article
%A García-Ruiz, R. 
%A Lucena, J. 
%A Niell, F. X. 
%T Do bacteria regenerate phosphorus while decomposing seston?
%J Marine and Freshwater Research
%D 1999/06/03
%V 50
%N 5
%P 459-466
%K 
%R https://doi.org/10.1071/MF98077
%U https://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/MF98077 
%X The C:P ratio of both seston in suspension and seston collected by sediment traps were systematically higher than the Redfield ratio of 106 : 1 (molar) and decreased significantly with depth in the mesotrophic, phosphorus-limited La Concepci&oacute;n reservoir. An aerobic decomposition experiment of seston at different concentrations by a mixed population of reservoir bacteria was performed in batch cultures to investigate the bacterial role in the changes of the C:P ratio. Dissolved phosphorus was taken up during the bacterial growth phase, while carbon was transformed to CO2 . Therefore, the C:P ratio of the decomposing seston decreased during this stage, and could partially explain the vertical distribution for the C:P ratio in this reservoir. During the death phase of the bacteria, flagellate grazing caused most of the bacterial phosphorus to be released to the medium. 
