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We describe a population of colonial cyanobacteria (waterwarts) that develops as the dominant primary producer in a bottom-fed, O2-poor, warm spring in the Cuatro Ci�negas karstic region of the Mexican Chihuahuan Desert. The centimeter-sized waterwarts were suspended within a central, conically shaped, 6-m deep well by upwelling waters. Waterwarts were built by an Aphanothece-like unicellular cyanobacterium and supported a community of epiphytic filamentous cyanobacteria and diatoms but were free of heterotrophic bacteria inside. Sequence analysis of 16S rRNA genes revealed that this cyanobacterium is only distantly related to several strains of other unicellular cyanobacteria (Merismopedia, Cyanothece, Microcystis)....
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1. The effects of phosphorus enrichment and grazing snails on a benthic microbial community that builds stromatolic oncolites were examined in an experiment at Rio Mesquites, Cuatro Ci�negas, Mexico. Chemical analyses of stream water samples indicated that overall atomic ratios of total nitrogen (N) to total phosphorus (P) were approximately 110, indicating a strong potential for P-limitation of microbial growth. 2. Phosphorus enrichment involved addition of 5 ?mol Na2HPO4 L-1 to streamside microcosms receiving intermittent inputs of stream water while grazer manipulation involved removal of the dominant grazer, the snail Mexithauma quadripaludium. After 7 weeks, we examined responses in organic matter content,...
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