Higher contribution of globally rare bacterial taxa reflects environmental transitions across the surface ocean
Type
ArticleAuthors
Ruiz-González, ClaraLogares, Ramiro
Sebastián, Marta
Mestre, Mireia
Rodríguez-Martínez, Raquel
Galí, Martí
Sala, Maria Montserrat
Acinas, Silvia G.
Duarte, Carlos M.

Gasol, Josep M.
KAUST Department
Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering (BESE) DivisionMarine Science Program
Red Sea Research Center (RSRC)
Date
2019-04-29Online Publication Date
2019-04-29Print Publication Date
2019-04Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/631041
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Microbial taxa range from being ubiquitous and abundant across space to extremely rare and endemic, depending on their ecophysiology and on different processes acting locally or regionally. However, little is known about how cosmopolitan or rare taxa combine to constitute communities and whether environmental variations promote changes in their relative abundances. Here we identified the Spatial Abundance Distribution (SpAD) of individual prokaryotic taxa (16S rDNA-defined Operational Taxonomic Units, OTUs) across 108 globally-distributed surface ocean stations. We grouped taxa based on their SpAD shape ('normal-like'- abundant and ubiquitous; 'logistic'- globally rare, present in few sites; and 'bimodal'- abundant only in certain oceanic regions), and investigated how the abundance of these three categories relates to environmental gradients. Most surface assemblages were numerically dominated by a few cosmopolitan 'normal-like' OTUs, yet there was a gradual shift towards assemblages dominated by 'logistic' taxa in specific areas with productivity and temperature differing most from the average conditions in the sampled stations. When we performed the SpAD categorization including additional habitats (deeper layers and suspended particles), the SpAD of many OTUs changed towards fewer 'normal-like' shapes, and OTUs categorized as globally rare in the surface ocean became abundant. This suggests that understanding the mechanisms behind microbial rarity and dominance requires expanding the context of study beyond local communities and single habitats. We show that marine bacterial communities comprise taxa displaying a continuum of SpADs, and that variations in their abundances can be linked to habitat transitions or barriers that delimit the distribution of community members. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.Citation
Ruiz-González C, Logares R, Sebastián M, Mestre M, Rodríguez-Martínez R, et al. (2019) Higher contribution of globally rare bacterial taxa reflects environmental transitions across the surface ocean. Molecular Ecology. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/mec.15026.Sponsors
This work was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) through the Consolider-Ingenio program (Malaspina 2010 Expedition, ref. CSD2008-00077), with contributions from grant CTM2015-70340R, CTM2015-65720-R, CTM2015-69936-P and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). We thank all scientists and crew involved in the Malaspina expedition, particularly M. Pernice, G. Salazar, F.M. Cornejo, E. Borrull, C. Diez-Vives, E. Lara, M. and D. Vaqué for help with DNA collection and extractions, and X. A. Álvarez-Salgado for providing environmental data. This is a contribution of Grup Consolidat de Recerca of the Catalan Government 2014SGR/1179. CRG was supported by a Juan de la Cierva (IJCI-2015-23505, MINECO, Spain) fellowship and RL by a Ramón y Cajal fellowship (RYC-2013-12554, MINECO, Spain). MS was supported by grant EcoRARE (CTM2014-60467-JIN), funded by the Spanish Government and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), REMEI (CTM2015-70340-Rf) funded by the Spanish Government, and a Viera y Clavijo contract funded by the ACIISI and the ULPGC. MM was supported by CONICYT (FONDAP-IDEAL 15150003). SGA was funded by BIOSENSOMICS through the ‘Convocatoria 2015 de ayudas Fundación BBVA a investigadores y creadores culturales’. RRM is supported by CONICYT FONDECYT 11170748.Publisher
WileyJournal
Molecular EcologyAdditional Links
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/mec.15026ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1111/mec.15026