A cautionary signal from the Red Sea on the impact of increased dust activity on marine microbiota
Type
ArticleAuthors
Behzad, HayedehOhyanagi, Hajime
Alharbi, Badr
Ibarra, Martin Augusto
Alarawi, Mohammed
Saito, Yoshimoto
Duarte, Carlos M.

Bajic, Vladimir B.

Mineta, Katsuhiko

Gojobori, Takashi
KAUST Department
Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC)Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering (BESE) Division
Bioscience
Marine Science Program
Red Sea Research Center (RSRC)
Applied Mathematics and Computational Science Program
Bioscience Program
Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Science and Engineering (CEMSE) Division
KAUST Grant Number
BAS/1/1059/01/01URF/1/1976/03/01
BAS/1/1606–01-01
FCC/1/1976–24-01
Date
2022-04-07Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/676291
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Background: Global climate change together with growing desertification is leading to increased dust emissions to the atmosphere, drawing attention to possible impacts on marine ecosystems receiving dust deposition. Since microorganisms play important roles in maintaining marine homeostasis through nutrient cycling and carbon flow, detrimental changes in the composition of marine microbiota in response to increased dust input could negatively impact marine health, particularly so in seas located within the Global Dust Belt. Due to its strategic location between two deserts and unique characteristics, the Red Sea provides an attractive semi-enclosed “megacosm” to examine the impacts of large dust deposition on the vastly diverse microbiota in its exceptionally warm oligotrophic waters. Results: We used culture-independent metagenomic approaches to assess temporal changes in the Red Sea microbiota in response to two severe sandstorms, one originated in the Nubian Desert in the summer 2016 and a second one originated in the Libyan Desert in the spring 2017. Despite differences in sandstorm origin and meteorological conditions, both sandstorms shifted bacterial and Archaeal groups in a similar mode. In particular, the relative abundance of autotrophic bacteria declined while those of heterotrophic bacteria, particularly Bacteroidetes, and Archaea increased. The changes peaked within six days from the start of sandstorms, and the community recovered the original assemblage within one month. Conclusion: Our results suggest that increased dust emission with expanding desertification could lead to undesirable impacts in ocean function, enhancing heterotrophic processes while reducing autotrophic ones, thereby affecting the marine food web in seas receiving dust deposition.Citation
Behzad, H., Ohyanagi, H., Alharbi, B., Ibarra, M., Alarawi, M., Saito, Y., Duarte, C. M., Bajic, V., Mineta, K., & Gojobori, T. (2022). A cautionary signal from the Red Sea on the impact of increased dust activity on marine microbiota. BMC Genomics, 23(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-022-08485-wSponsors
We thank Prof. George Kallos and Dr. Christos Spyrou from the University of Athens for providing the SKIRON dust deposition mapsFigure 1 was produced by Ivan Gromicho, scientific illustrator at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
Supported through funding from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), under award numbers BAS/1/1059/01/01, URF/1/1976/03/01, BAS/1/1606–01-01 and FCC/1/1976–24-01. The funding bodies played no role in the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and in writing the manuscript
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLCJournal
BMC GenomicsPubMed ID
35392799PubMed Central ID
PMC8991508ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1186/s12864-022-08485-w
Scopus Count
Collections
Articles; Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering (BESE) Division; Red Sea Research Center (RSRC); Bioscience Program; Marine Science Program; Applied Mathematics and Computational Science Program; Computational Bioscience Research Center (CBRC); Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Science and Engineering (CEMSE) Division
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Archived with thanks to BMC Genomics under a Creative Commons license, details at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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