Different Responses of Bacteria and Microeukaryote to Assembly Processes and Co-occurrence Pattern in the Coastal Upwelling

Microb Ecol. 2023 Jul;86(1):174-186. doi: 10.1007/s00248-022-02093-7. Epub 2022 Aug 4.

Abstract

Upwelling may generate unique hydrological and environmental heterogeneity, leading to enhanced diffusion to reshape microbial communities. However, it remains largely unknown how different microbial taxa respond to highly complex and dynamic upwelling systems. In the present study, geographic patterns and co-occurrence network of different microbial communities in response to upwelling were examined. Our results showed that coastal upwelling shaped prokaryotic and eukaryotic microbial community and decreased their diversity. In addition, bacteria and microeukaryote had similar biogeographical patterns with distinct assembly mechanisms. The impact of stochastic processes on bacteria was significantly stronger compared with microeukaryote in upwelling. Lower network complexity but more frequent interaction was found in upwelling microbial co-occurrence. However, the upwelling environment increased the robustness and modularity of bacterial network, while eukaryotic network was just the opposite. Co-occurrence networks of bacteria and microeukaryote showed significant distance-decay patterns, while the bacterial network had a stronger spatial variation. Temperature and salinity were the strongest environmental factors affecting microbial coexistence, whereas the topological characteristics of bacterial and eukaryotic networks had different responses to the upwelling environment. These findings expanded our understanding of biogeographic patterns of microbial community and ecological network and the underlying mechanisms of different microbial taxa in upwelling.

Keywords: Biogeographic patterns; Community assembly; Microbial co-occurrence network; Upwelling regime.

MeSH terms

  • Bacteria* / genetics
  • Eukaryota
  • Microbiota*
  • Phylogeny