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A Salinity Threshold Separating Fungal Communities in the Baltic Sea.

ABSTRACT: Salinity is a significant factor for structuring microbial communities, but little is known for aquatic fungi, particularly in the pelagic zone of brackish ecosystems. In this study, we explored the diversity and composition of fungal communities following a progressive salinity decline (from 34 to 3 PSU) along three transects of ca. 2000 km in the Baltic Sea, the world's largest estuary. Based on 18S rRNA gene sequence analysis, we detected clear changes in fungal community composition along the salinity gradient and found significant differences in composition of fungal communities established above and below a critical value of 8 PSU. At salinities below this threshold, fungal communities resembled those from freshwater environments, with a greater abundance of Chytridiomycota, particularly of the orders Rhizophydiales, Lobulomycetales, and Gromochytriales. At salinities above 8 PSU, communities were more similar to those from marine environments and, depending on the season, were dominated by a strain of the LKM11 group (Cryptomycota) or by members of Ascomycota and Basidiomycota. Our results highlight salinity as an important environmental driver also for pelagic fungi, and thus should be taken into account to better understand fungal diversity and ecological function in the aquatic realm.

SUBMITTER: Rojas-Jimenez K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6449873 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:The Baltic Sea is one of the largest brackish water bodies in the world. Redoxclines that form between oxic and anoxic layers in the deepest sub-basins are a semi-permanent character of the pelagic Baltic Sea. The microbially mediated nitrogen removal processes in these redoxclines have been recognized as important ecosystem service that removes large proportion of the nitrogen load originating from the drainage basin. However, nitrification, which links mineralization of organic nitrogen and nitrogen removal processes, has remained poorly understood. To gain better understanding of the nitrogen cycling in the Baltic Sea, we analyzed the assemblage of ammonia oxidizing bacteria and archaea in the central Baltic Sea using functional gene microarrays and measured the biogeochemical properties along with potential nitrification rates. Overall, the ammonia oxidizer communities in the Baltic Sea redoxcline were very evenly distributed. However, the communities were clearly different between the eastern and western Gotland Basin and the correlations between different components of the ammonia oxidizer assemblages and environmental variables suggest ecological basis for the community composition. The more even community ammonia oxidizer composition in the eastern Gotland Basin may be related to the constantly oscillating redoxcline that does not allow domination of single archetype. The oscillating redoxcline also creates long depth range of optimal nitrification conditions. The rate measurements suggest that nitrification in the central Baltic Sea is able to produce all nitrate required by denitrification occurring below the nitrification zone. Two color array (Cy3 and Cy5): the universal standard 20-mer oligo is printed to the slide with a 70-mer oligo (an archetype). Environmental DNA sequences (fluoresced with Cy3) within 15% of the 70-mer conjugated to a 20-mer oligo (fluoresced with Cy5) complementary to the universal standard will bind to the oligo probes on the array. Signal is the ratio of Cy3 to Cy5. Three replicate probes were printed for each archetype. Two replicate arrays were run on duplicate targets.

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A Salinity Threshold Separating Fungal Communities in the Baltic Sea.

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