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Seagrass-associated fungal communities show distance decay of similarity that has implications for seagrass management and restoration.

ABSTRACT: Marine fungal biodiversity remains vastly understudied, and even less is known of their biogeography and the processes responsible for driving these distributions in marine environments. We investigated the fungal communities associated with the seagrass Enhalus acoroides collected from Singapore and Peninsular Malaysia to test the hypothesis that fungal communities are homogeneous throughout the study area. Seagrass samples were separated into different structures (leaves, roots, and rhizomes), and a sediment sample was collected next to each plant. Amplicon sequencing of the fungal internal transcribed spacer 1 and subsequent analysis revealed significant differences in fungal communities collected from different locations and different structures. We show a significant pattern of distance decay, with samples collected close to each other having more similar fungal communities in comparison with those that are more distant, indicating dispersal limitations and/or differences in habitat type are contributing to the observed biogeographic patterns. These results add to our understanding of the seagrass ecosystem in an understudied region of the world that is also the global epicenter of seagrass diversity. This work has implications for seagrass management and conservation initiatives, and we recommend that fungal community composition be a consideration for any seagrass transplant or restoration programme.

SUBMITTER: Wainwright BJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6802368 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Seagrass-associated fungal communities show distance decay of similarity that has implications for seagrass management and restoration.

Wainwright Benjamin J BJ Zahn Geoffrey L GL Zushi Joshua J Lee Nicole Li Ying NLY Ooi Jillian Lean Sim JLS Lee Jen Nie JN Huang Danwei D

Ecology and evolution 20190915 19

Marine fungal biodiversity remains vastly understudied, and even less is known of their biogeography and the processes responsible for driving these distributions in marine environments. We investigated the fungal communities associated with the seagrass <i>Enhalus acoroides</i> collected from Singapore and Peninsular Malaysia to test the hypothesis that fungal communities are homogeneous throughout the study area. Seagrass samples were separated into different structures (leaves, roots, and rhi ...[more]

PMID: 31641473

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Project description:Bacteria and fungi are important mediators of biogeochemical processes and play essential roles in the establishment of plant communities, which makes knowledge about their recovery after extreme disturbances valuable for understanding ecosystem development. However, broad ecological differences between bacterial and fungal organisms, such as growth rates, stress tolerance, and substrate utilization, suggest they could follow distinct trajectories and show contrasting dynamics during recovery. In this study, we analyzed both the intra-annual variability and decade-scale recovery of bacterial and fungal communities in a chronosequence of reclaimed mined soils using next-generation sequencing to quantify their abundance, richness, ?-diversity, taxonomic composition, and cooccurrence network properties. Bacterial communities shifted gradually, with overlapping ?-diversity patterns across chronosequence ages, while shifts in fungal communities were more distinct among different ages. In addition, the magnitude of intra-annual variability in bacterial ?-diversity was comparable to the changes across decades of chronosequence age, while fungal communities changed minimally across months. Finally, the complexity of bacterial cooccurrence networks increased with chronosequence age, while fungal networks did not show clear age-related trends. We hypothesize that these contrasting dynamics of bacteria and fungi in the chronosequence result from (i) higher growth rates for bacteria, leading to higher intra-annual variability; (ii) higher tolerance to environmental changes for fungi; and (iii) stronger influence of vegetation on fungal communities.IMPORTANCE Both bacteria and fungi play essential roles in ecosystem functions, and information about their recovery after extreme disturbances is important for understanding whole-ecosystem development. Given their many differences in phenotype, phylogeny, and life history, a comparison of different bacterial and fungal recovery patterns improves the understanding of how different components of the soil microbiota respond to ecosystem recovery. In this study, we highlight key differences between soil bacteria and fungi during the restoration of reclaimed mine soils in the form of long-term diversity patterns, intra-annual variability, and potential interaction networks. Cooccurrence networks revealed increasingly complex bacterial community interactions during recovery, in contrast to much simpler and more isolated fungal network patterns. This study compares bacterial and fungal cooccurrence networks and reveals cooccurrences persisting through successional ages.

Project description:AimUnderstanding the variation in community composition and species abundances (i.e., β-diversity) is at the heart of community ecology. A common approach to examine β-diversity is to evaluate directional variation in community composition by measuring the decay in the similarity among pairs of communities along spatial or environmental distance. We provide the first global synthesis of taxonomic and functional distance decay along spatial and environmental distance by analysing 148 datasets comprising different types of organisms and environments.LocationGlobal.Time period1990 to present.Major taxa studiedFrom diatoms to mammals.MethodWe measured the strength of the decay using ranked Mantel tests (Mantel r) and the rate of distance decay as the slope of an exponential fit using generalized linear models. We used null models to test whether functional similarity decays faster or slower than expected given the taxonomic decay along the spatial and environmental distance. We also unveiled the factors driving the rate of decay across the datasets, including latitude, spatial extent, realm and organismal features.ResultsTaxonomic distance decay was stronger than functional distance decay along both spatial and environmental distance. Functional distance decay was random given the taxonomic distance decay. The rate of taxonomic and functional spatial distance decay was fastest in the datasets from mid-latitudes. Overall, datasets covering larger spatial extents showed a lower rate of decay along spatial distance but a higher rate of decay along environmental distance. Marine ecosystems had the slowest rate of decay along environmental distances.Main conclusionsIn general, taxonomic distance decay is a useful tool for biogeographical research because it reflects dispersal-related factors in addition to species responses to climatic and environmental variables. Moreover, functional distance decay might be a cost-effective option for investigating community changes in heterogeneous environments.

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Seagrass-associated fungal communities show distance decay of similarity that has implications for seagrass management and restoration.

Publications

Seagrass-associated fungal communities show distance decay of similarity that has implications for seagrass management and restoration.

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