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ABSTRACT Heterotrophic marine bacteria utilize and recycle dissolved organic matter (DOM), impacting biogeochemical cycles. It is currently unclear to what extent distinct DOM components can be used by different heterotrophic clades. Here, we ask how a natural microbial community from the Eastern Mediterranean Sea (EMS) responds to different molecular classes of DOM (peptides, amino acids, amino sugars, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and organic acids) comprising much of the biomass of living organisms. Bulk bacterial activity increased after 24 h for all treatments relative to the control, while glucose and ATP uptake decreased or remained unchanged. Moreover, while the per-cell uptake rate of glucose and ATP decreased, that of Leucin significantly increased for amino acids, reflecting their importance as common metabolic currencies in the marine environment.Pseudoalteromonadaceaedominated the peptides treatment, while differentVibrionaceaestrains became dominant in response to amino acids and amino sugars.Marinomonadaceaegrew well on organic acids, andAlteromonadaseaeon disaccharides. A comparison with a recent laboratory-based study reveals similar peptide preferences forPseudoalteromonadaceae, whileAlteromonadaceae, for example, grew well in the lab on many substrates but dominated in seawater samples only when disaccharides were added. We further demonstrate a potential correlation between the genetic capacity for degrading amino sugars and the dominance of specific clades in these treatments. These results highlight the diversity in DOM utilization among heterotrophic bacteria and complexities in the response of natural communities. IMPORTANCEA major goal of microbial ecology is to predict the dynamics of natural communities based on the identity of the organisms, their physiological traits, and their genomes. Our results show that several clades of heterotrophic bacteria each grow in response to one or more specific classes of organic matter. For some clades, but not others, growth in a complex community is similar to that of isolated strains in laboratory monoculture. Additionally, by measuring how the entire community responds to various classes of organic matter, we show that these results are ecologically relevant, and propose that some of these resources are utilized through common uptake pathways. Tracing the path between different resources to the specific microbes that utilize them, and identifying commonalities and differences between different natural communities and between them and lab cultures, is an important step toward understanding microbial community dynamics and predicting how communities will respond to perturbations. 

Abstract. Marine diazotrophs convert dinitrogen (N2) gas intobioavailable nitrogen (N), supporting life in the global ocean. In 2012, thefirst version of the global oceanic diazotroph database (version 1) waspublished. Here, we present an updated version of the database (version 2),significantly increasing the number of in situ diazotrophic measurements from13 565 to 55 286. Data points for N2 fixation rates, diazotrophic cellabundance, and nifH gene copy abundance have increased by 184 %, 86 %, and809 %, respectively. Version 2 includes two new data sheets for the nifH genecopy abundance of non-cyanobacterial diazotrophs and cell-specific N2fixation rates. The measurements of N2 fixation rates approximatelyfollow a log-normal distribution in both version 1 and version 2. However,version 2 considerably extends both the left and right tails of thedistribution. Consequently, when estimating global oceanic N2 fixationrates using the geometric means of different ocean basins, version 1 andversion 2 yield similar rates (43–57 versus 45–63 Tg N yr−1; rangesbased on one geometric standard error). In contrast, when using arithmeticmeans, version 2 suggests a significantly higher rate of 223±30 Tg N yr−1 (mean ± standard error; same hereafter) compared to version 1(74±7 Tg N yr−1). Specifically, substantial rate increases areestimated for the South Pacific Ocean (88±23 versus 20±2 Tg N yr−1), primarily driven by measurements in the southwestern subtropics,and for the North Atlantic Ocean (40±9 versus 10±2 Tg N yr−1). Moreover, version 2 estimates the N2 fixation rate in theIndian Ocean to be 35±14 Tg N yr−1, which could not be estimatedusing version 1 due to limited data availability. Furthermore, a comparisonof N2 fixation rates obtained through different measurement methods atthe same months, locations, and depths reveals that the conventional15N2 bubble method yields lower rates in 69 % cases compared tothe new 15N2 dissolution method. This updated version of thedatabase can facilitate future studies in marine ecology andbiogeochemistry. The database is stored at the Figshare repository(https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.21677687; Shao etal., 2022).