Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: On coral reefs, microorganisms are essential for recycling nutrients to primary producers through the remineralization of benthic-derived organic matter. Diel investigations of reef processes are required to holistically understand the functional roles of microbial players in these ecosystems. Here we report a metagenomic analysis characterizing microbial communities in the water column overlying 16 remote forereef sites over a diel cycle. Our results show that microbial community composition is more dissimilar between day and night samples collected from the same site than between day or night samples collected across geographically distant reefs. Diel community differentiation is largely driven by the flux of Psychrobacter sp., which is two-orders of magnitude more abundant during the day. Nighttime communities are enriched with species of Roseobacter, Halomonas, and Alteromonas encoding a greater variety of pathways for carbohydrate catabolism, further illustrating temporal patterns of energetic provisioning between different marine microbes. Dynamic diel fluctuations of microbial populations could also support the efficient trophic transfer of energy posited in coral reef food webs.
Source: Nature Communications
Authors: Linda Wegley Kelly, Craig E. Nelson, Andreas F. Haas, Douglas S. Naliboff, Sandi Calhoun, Craig A. Carlson, Robert A. Edwards, Michael D. Fox, Mark Hatay, Maggie D. Johnson, Emily L. A. Kelly, Yan Wei Lim, Saichetana Macherla, Zachary A. Quinlan, Genivaldo Gueiros Z. Silva, Mark J. A. Vermeij, Brian Zgliczynski, Stuart A. Sandin, Jennifer E. Smith, Forest Rohwer
Institutions: San Diego State University, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Utrecht University, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, University of California, Santa Barbara, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, Smithsonian Marine Station, Caribbean Research and Management of Biodiversity Foundation, University of Amsterdam
Language: English
Subfield: Ecology
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Life below water
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $5,200
Awards: G1425168023, Collaborative Research: Dissolved organic matter feedbacks in coral reef resilience: The genomic & geochemical basis for microbial modulation of algal phase shifts, Collaborative Research: Dissolved organic matter feedbacks in coral reef resilience: The genomic & geochemical basis for microbial modulation of algal phase shifts, PIRE: Assembly of Marine Biodiversity Along Geographic and Anthropogenic Stress Gradients, Collaborative Research: Dissolved organic matter feedbacks in coral reef resilience: The genomic & geochemical basis for microbial modulation of algal phase shifts
OpenAlex ID: W2939615846