Organic matter recycling in a shallow coastal zone (NW Mediterranean): The influence of local and global climatic forcing and organic matter lability on hydrolytic enzyme activity

Seawater and sediment were collected on a monthly basis from a shallow (10.5 m depth) coastal site in the Ligurian Sea (NW Mediterranean) from November 1993 to December 1994 to determine the main environmental forces that influenced the biogeochemical processes and to study the relationships between the availability and lability of the organic matter (OM) and hydrolytic enzymatic activity. The current direction throughout the sampling year was influenced by the climatic conditions, which showed significant correlations with north atlantic oscillation (NAO) index values. The current generally flowed northwards in spring. This could cause significantly lower transparency values than in the summer, when an eastward current probably reduced the allochthonous input of material from the main local watercourse and contributed to turning the conditions from mesotrophic to oligotrophic. Spring and summer were separated by transitional periods more than by the canonical autumn and winter seasons. These transitions were characterised by a reduction in salinity values and by resuspension caused by water column mixing and a current flowing towards the southwest. The significant inverse correlations of the chlorophyll- a and protein concentrations, bacterial abundance and proteolysis of the bottom seawater and transparency showed the direct influence of resuspension on the organic matter dynamics. Moreover, OM trophic quality influenced the bacterial parameters and the enzymatic activities. The glycolytic β glucosidase and chitinase activities and their bacterial cell-specific hydrolytic rates were higher when substrates such as hydrolysable proteins were available, while they decreased when refractory compounds were abundant. The low leucine aminopeptidase: β glucosidase ratio values observed in the water column were presumably related to the potential ease with which microbes obtained protein-derived materials and energy, the protein hydrolysable fraction being estimated at ca. 90%. The significant correlations of protein with the chlorophyll- a concentrations suggested an autotrophic-derived origin, although the higher chlorophyll- a values corresponded to lower hydrolysable protein concentrations and an increase in the autotrophic biomass at the surface was correlated with a reduction in the proteolytic affinity for substrates, suggesting that a recent origin did not necessarily mean higher trophic availability. In the sediment, the lower protein: carbohydrate and c