[AE2413 Bacterial productivity] - Bacterial productivity of samples from three stations in the Western North Atlantic aboard R/V Atlantic Explorer cruise AE2413, during May 2024 (Collaborative Research: Pressure effects on microbially-catalyzed organic matter degradation in the deep ocean)

We have new evidence that a substantial fraction of bacteria in bottom water from the North Atlantic Ocean use a specialized set of extracellular enzymes to rapidly take up HMW polysaccharides (Giljan et al. 2021), a substrate processing mechanism that would not be detected with the low molecular weight substrates used in most prior studies of microbial activity in the deep ocean (Nagata et al. 2010). Through our collaboration with the Danish Center for Hadal Research, we were able to use pressurization systems and in situ specialized equipment to investigate the effects of pressures characteristic of bathy- and abyssopelagic depths on microbial communities and their extracellular enzymes in the open North Atlantic Ocean.

Here we present the measurement of 3H-leucine incorporation by heterotrophic bacteria using a cold trichloroacetic acid (TCA) and microcentrifuge extraction method (Kirchman, 2001) at different sites in the Western North Atlantic aboard R/V Atlantic Explorer during during the research cruise AE2413 (2024-05-09 to 2024-05-28). All work and incubations were performed in a UNOLS isotope lab, or within designated areas at the University of North Carolina at Chapel HIll post cruise.

This dataset contains collection metadata, environmental conditions, sample types and treatments, incubation conditions, substrate types, radioactivity measurements, and calculated incorporation rates of 3H-leucine.