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Microbial Mat Functional and Compositional Sensitivity to Environmental Disturbance

Eva C. Preisner, Erin B. Fichot, View ORCID ProfileR. Sean Norman
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/063370
Eva C. Preisner
1Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of South Carolina, 921 Assembly Street, Columbia, South Carolina 29208
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Erin B. Fichot
1Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of South Carolina, 921 Assembly Street, Columbia, South Carolina 29208
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R. Sean Norman
1Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of South Carolina, 921 Assembly Street, Columbia, South Carolina 29208
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  • ORCID record for R. Sean Norman
  • For correspondence: rsnorman@sc.edu.
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Abstract

The ability of ecosystems to adapt to environmental perturbations depends on the duration and intensity of change and the overall biological diversity of the system. While studies have indicated that rare microbial taxa may provide a biological reservoir that supports long-term ecosystem stability, how this dynamic population is influenced by environmental parameters remains unclear. In this study, a microbial mat ecosystem located on San Salvador Island, The Bahamas was used as a model to examine how environmental disturbance affects the activity of rare and abundant archaeal and bacterial communities and how these changes impact potential biogeochemical processes. While this ecosystem undergoes a range of seasonal variation, it experienced a large shift in salinity (230 to 65 g kg−1) during 2011-2012 following the landfall of Hurricane Irene on San Salvador Island. High throughput sequencing and analysis of 16S rRNA and rRNA genes from samples before and after the pulse disturbance showed significant changes in the diversity and activity of abundant and rare taxa, suggesting overall functional and compositional sensitivity to environmental change. In both archaeal and bacterial communities, while the majority of taxa showed low activity across conditions, the total number of active taxa and overall activity increased postdisturbance, with significant shifts in activity occurring among abundant and rare taxa across and within phyla. Broadly, following the post-disturbance reduction in salinity, taxa within Halobacteria decreased while those within Crenarchaeota, Thaumarchaeota, Thermoplasmata, Cyanobacteria, and Proteobacteria, increased in abundance and activity. Quantitative PCR of genes and transcripts involved in nitrogen and sulfur cycling showed concomitant shifts in biogeochemical cycling potential. Post-disturbance conditions increased the expression of genes involved in N-fixation, nitrification, denitrification, and sulfate reduction. Together, our findings show complex community adaptation to environmental change and help elucidate factors connecting disturbance, biodiversity, and ecosystem function that may enhance ecosystem models.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC 4.0 International license.
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Posted July 12, 2016.
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Microbial Mat Functional and Compositional Sensitivity to Environmental Disturbance
Eva C. Preisner, Erin B. Fichot, R. Sean Norman
bioRxiv 063370; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/063370
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Microbial Mat Functional and Compositional Sensitivity to Environmental Disturbance
Eva C. Preisner, Erin B. Fichot, R. Sean Norman
bioRxiv 063370; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/063370

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