Consistency and Variation in the Kelp Microbiota: Patterns of Bacterial Community Structure Across Spatial Scales

King, NG, Moore, PJ, Thorpe, JM and Smale, DA 2022 Consistency and Variation in the Kelp Microbiota: Patterns of Bacterial Community Structure Across Spatial Scales. Microbial Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-022-02038-0

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Abstract/Summary

Kelp species are distributed along ~ 25% of the world’s coastlines and the forests they form represent some of the world’s most productive and diverse ecosystems. Like other marine habitat–formers, the associated microbial community is fundamental for host and, in turn, wider ecosystem functioning. Given there are thousands of bacteria-host associations, determining which relationships are important remains a major challenge. We characterised the associated bacteria of two habitat-forming kelp species, Laminaria hyperborea and Saccharina latissima, from eight sites across a range of spatial scales (10 s of metres to 100 s of km) in the northeast Atlantic. We found no difference in diversity or community structure between the two kelps, but there was evidence of regional structuring (across 100 s km) and considerable variation between individuals (10 s of metres). Within sites, individuals shared few amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) and supported a very small proportion of diversity found across the wider study area. However, consistent characteristics between individuals were observed with individual host communities containing a small conserved “core” (8–11 ASVs comprising 25 and 32% of sample abundances for L. hyperborea and S. latissima, respectively). At a coarser taxonomic resolution, communities were dominated by four classes (Planctomycetes, Gammaproteobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria and Bacteroidia) that made up ~ 84% of sample abundances. Remaining taxa (47 classes) made up very little contribution to overall abundance but the majority of taxonomic diversity. Overall, our study demonstrates the consistent features of kelp bacterial communities across large spatial scales and environmental gradients and provides an ecologically meaningful baseline to track environmental change.

Item Type: Publication - Article
Additional Keywords: Holobiont, Laminaria hyperborea, Saccharina latissima, Bacteria, Core microbiome
Subjects: Aquaculture
Biology
Marine Sciences
Divisions: Marine Biological Association of the UK > Other (MBA)
Depositing User: Tamar Atkinson
Date made live: 24 Jun 2022 13:08
Last Modified: 09 Feb 2024 16:57
URI: https://plymsea.ac.uk/id/eprint/9717

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