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Genetic diversity enhances the resistance of a seagrass ecosystem to disturbance.

ABSTRACT: Motivated by recent global reductions in biodiversity, empirical and theoretical research suggests that more species-rich systems exhibit enhanced productivity, nutrient cycling, or resistance to disturbance or invasion relative to systems with fewer species. In contrast, few data are available to assess the potential ecosystem-level importance of genetic diversity within species known to play a major functional role. Using a manipulative field experiment, we show that increasing genotypic diversity in a habitat-forming species (the seagrass Zostera marina) enhances community resistance to disturbance by grazing geese. The time required for recovery to near predisturbance densities also decreases with increasing eelgrass genotypic diversity. However, there is no effect of diversity on resilience, measured as the rate of shoot recovery after the disturbance, suggesting that more rapid recovery in diverse plots is due solely to differences in disturbance resistance. Genotypic diversity did not affect ecosystem processes in the absence of disturbance. Thus, our results suggest that genetic diversity, like species diversity, may be most important for enhancing the consistency and reliability of ecosystems by providing biological insurance against environmental change.

SUBMITTER: Hughes AR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC428461 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Genetic diversity enhances the resistance of a seagrass ecosystem to disturbance.

Hughes A Randall AR Stachowicz John J JJ

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20040607 24

Motivated by recent global reductions in biodiversity, empirical and theoretical research suggests that more species-rich systems exhibit enhanced productivity, nutrient cycling, or resistance to disturbance or invasion relative to systems with fewer species. In contrast, few data are available to assess the potential ecosystem-level importance of genetic diversity within species known to play a major functional role. Using a manipulative field experiment, we show that increasing genotypic diver ...[more]

PMID: 15184681

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Project description:Abstract Microbial communities in freshwater streams play an essential role in ecosystem functioning via biogeochemical cycling. Yet, the impacts of treated wastewater influx into stream ecosystems on microbial strain diversity remain mostly unexplored. Here, we coupled full‐length 16S ribosomal RNA gene Nanopore sequencing and strain‐resolved metagenomics to investigate the impact of treated wastewater on a mesocosm system (AquaFlow) run with restored river water. Over 10 days, community Bray–Curtis dissimilarities between treated and control mesocosm decreased (0.57 ± 0.058 to 0.26 ± 0.046) based on ribosomal protein S3 gene clustering, finally converging to nearly identical communities. Similarly, strain‐resolved metagenomics revealed a high diversity of bacteria and viruses after the introduction of treated wastewater; these microbes also decreased over time resulting in the same strain clusters in control and treatment at the end of the experiment. Specifically, 39.2% of viral strains detected in all samples were present after the introduction of treated wastewater only. Although bacteria present at low abundance in the treated wastewater introduced additional antibiotic resistance genes, signals of naturally occurring ARG‐encoding organisms resembled the resistome at the endpoint. Our results suggest that the previously stressed freshwater stream and its microbial community are resilient to a substantial introduction of treated wastewater. Wastewater represents a substantial portion of river microbiomes worldwide, yet its effect on stream microbiomes remains challenging to study. Here, we use a mesocosm setup combined with strain‐resolved metagenomics to unravel the impacts of treated wastewater on previously stressed stream water. The disturbance resulted in a significant shift of the microbiome, which did not persist over 10 days, suggesting that previously stressed stream microbiomes are resilient to the introduction of treated wastewater.

Dataset Information

Genetic diversity enhances the resistance of a seagrass ecosystem to disturbance.

Publications

Genetic diversity enhances the resistance of a seagrass ecosystem to disturbance.

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