A copiotroph is an

organism In biology, an organism () is any living system that functions as an individual entity. All organisms are composed of cells ( cell theory). Organisms are classified by taxonomy into groups such as multicellular animals, plants, and ...

found in environments rich in

nutrient A nutrient is a substance used by an organism to survive, grow, and reproduce. The requirement for dietary nutrient intake applies to animals, plants, fungi, and protists. Nutrients can be incorporated into cells for metabolic purposes or excret ...

s, particularly

carbon Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent—its atom making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds. It belongs to group 14 of the periodic table. Carbon makes u ...

. They are the opposite to

oligotroph An oligotroph is an organism that can live in an environment that offers very low levels of nutrients. They may be contrasted with copiotrophs, which prefer nutritionally rich environments. Oligotrophs are characterized by slow growth, low rates ...

s, which survive in much lower carbon concentrations. Copiotrophic organisms tend to grow in high organic substrate conditions. For example, copiotrophic organisms grow in Sewage lagoons. They grow in organic substrate conditions up to 100x higher than oligotrophs.

Classification and Identification

The

bacterial phyla Bacterial phyla constitute the major lineages of the domain ''Bacteria''. While the exact definition of a bacterial phylum is debated, a popular definition is that a bacterial phylum is a monophyletic lineage of bacteria whose 16S rRNA genes ...

can be differentiatied into copiotrophic or oligotrophic categories that correspond and structure the functions of soil bacterial communities.

Interaction with other organisms

Copiotrophic relation between oligotrophic bacteria depends on the amount of concentration the soil has of C compounds. If the soil has large amounts of organic C, it would then favor the copiotrophic bacteria.

Ecology

Copiotrophic bacteria are a key component in the soil C cycle. It is most important during the period of the year when vegetation is photosynthetically active and exudes large amounts of simple C compounds like

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...

amino acids Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although hundreds of amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the alpha-amino acids, which comprise proteins. Only 22 alpha a ...

, and organic acids. Copiotrophic bacteria are also found within marine life.

References

Fierer, N., Bradford, M. A., & Jackson, R. B. (2007). Toward an ecological classification of soil bacteria. Ecology, 88(6), 1354-1364. Ivars-Martinez, E., Martin-Cuadrado, A. B., D'auria, G., Mira, A., Ferriera, S., Johnson, J., ... & Rodriguez-Valera, F. (2008). Comparative genomics of two ecotypes of the marine planktonic copiotroph Alteromonas macleodii suggests alternative lifestyles associated with different kinds of particulate organic matter. The ISME journal, 2(12), 1194-1212. Lladó, S., & Baldrian, P. (2017). Community-level physiological profiling analyses show potential to identify the copiotrophic bacteria present in soil environments. PLoS One, 12(2), e0171638. Organisms by adaptation Trophic ecology {{ecology-stub