Dynamics of the anoxygenic phototrophic community in meromictic Fayetteville Green Lake (NY) and the associated sedimentary pigment record

Photosynthetic pigments and their diagenetic products in marine sedimentary rocks hold important clues about recent and ancient variability in the Earth's surface environment. The chemical relicts of carotenoids from anoxygenic sulfur bacteria are of particular interest to geoscientists because of their potential to signal episodes of marine photic-zone euxinia such as those proposed for extended periods in the Proterozoic as well as brief intervals during the Phanerozoic. It is therefore critical to constrain the environmental and physiological factors that influence carotenoid production and preservation in modern environments. Our work in redox stratified, microbially dominated Fayetteville Green Lake (New York) has spanned the past decade and included seasonal (2005-2006) and monthly (2011) pigment monitoring in the water column, as well as a coupled pigment and nucleic acid clone library analyses from planktonic and benthic samples in 2006. Populations of photosynthetic bacteria in the water column are dynamic on monthly and annual scales. In 2011, purple sulfur bacteria (PSB) and green sulfur bacteria (GSB) were most abundant in spring and fall, respectively, responding to environmental conditions. PSB are diverse both at the chemocline and in benthic mats below oxygenated shallow waters, with different PSB species inhabiting the two environments. Okenone (from PSB) is an abundant carotenoid in both the chemocline waters and in benthic mats. GSB and their primary pigment Bchl e are also represented in and below the chemocline. However, the water column and sediments contain only trace concentrations of the GSB carotenoid isorenieratene, with concentrations relative to Bchl e being at least two orders of magnitude lower than we have observed in other meromictic lakes. Sediments deposited over the past ~550 years also reveal decadal to centennial scale variability in pigment production in the water column, possibly associated with hypothesized climatic and anthropogenic influences. The exceptionally low concentrations of isorenieratene and apparent benthic production of okenone provide strong rationale for continued exploration of the microbial ecology of biomarker production in modern euxinic environments.