Incubation and grazing effects on spirotrich ciliate diversity inferred from molecular analyses of microcosm experiments
Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: We used an experimental approach of analyzing marine microcosms to evaluate the impact of both predation (top-down) and food resources (bottom-up) on spirotrich ciliate communities. To assess the diversity, we used two molecular methods-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and high-throughput sequencing (HTS). We carried out two types of experiments to measure top-down (adult copepods as predators) and bottom-up effects (phytoplankton as food resources) on the spirotrich ciliates. We observed both strong incubation effects (untreated controls departed from initial assessment of diversity) and high variability across replicates within treatments, particularly for the bottom-up experiments. This suggests a rapid community turn-over during incubation and differential susceptibility to the effects of experimental manipulation. Despite the variability, our analyses reveal some broad patterns such as (1) increasing adult copepod predator abundance had a greater impact on spirotrich ciliates than on other microbial eukaryotes; (2) there was no evidence for strong food selection by the dominant spirotrich ciliates.
Source: PLoS ONE
Language: English
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
SDG: Life below water
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,595
Funders: National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture, University of Connecticut, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Division of Ocean Sciences, Division of Environmental Biology, National Marine Fisheries Service, Office of Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research
Awards: G1214371765, G1460967580, G1604024281, G2119709054, G3614316869, G531025577, Collaborative research: Patterns of diversity in planktonic ciliates ? spatio-temporal scales and community assembly in the coastal ocean, Collaborative research: Patterns of diversity in planktonic ciliates: spatio-temporal scales and community assembly in the coastal ocean, G7657794787, Acquisition of Instrumentation for a Genomics Facility in Support of the URI Environmental Biotechnology Initiative, GoLife: Collaborative Research: Bringing the diverse microbial clade Stramenopila + Alveolata + Rhizaria (SAR) into a modern genomic context, G8495542892, Rhode Island EPSCoR: Catalyzing a Research, Education and Innovation Network, Infrastructure to Advance Life Sciences in the Ocean State
OpenAlex ID: W2944029183