Dataset Information

Microbial communities in the tropical air ecosystem follow a precise diel cycle.

ABSTRACT: The atmosphere is vastly underexplored as a habitable ecosystem for microbial organisms. In this study, we investigated 795 time-resolved metagenomes from tropical air, generating 2.27 terabases of data. Despite only 9 to 17% of the generated sequence data currently being assignable to taxa, the air harbored a microbial diversity that rivals the complexity of other planetary ecosystems. The airborne microbial organisms followed a clear diel cycle, possibly driven by environmental factors. Interday taxonomic diversity exceeded day-to-day and month-to-month variation. Environmental time series revealed the existence of a large core of microbial taxa that remained invariable over 13 mo, thereby underlining the long-term robustness of the airborne community structure. Unlike terrestrial or aquatic environments, where prokaryotes are prevalent, the tropical airborne biomass was dominated by DNA from eukaryotic phyla. Specific fungal and bacterial species were strongly correlated with temperature, humidity, and CO2 concentration, making them suitable biomarkers for studying the bioaerosol dynamics of the atmosphere.

SUBMITTER: Gusareva ES

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6859341 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Microbial communities in the tropical air ecosystem follow a precise diel cycle.

Gusareva Elena S ES Acerbi Enzo E Lau Kenny J X KJX Luhung Irvan I Premkrishnan Balakrishnan N V BNV Kolundžija Sandra S Purbojati Rikky W RW Wong Anthony A Houghton James N I JNI Miller Dana D Gaultier Nicolas E NE Heinle Cassie E CE Clare Megan E ME Vettath Vineeth Kodengil VK Kee Carmon C Lim Serene B Y SBY Chénard Caroline C Phung Wen Jia WJ Kushwaha Kavita K KK Nee Ang Poh AP Putra Alexander A Panicker Deepa D Yanqing Koh K Hwee Yap Zhei YZ Lohar Sachin R SR Kuwata Mikinori M Kim Hie Lim HL Yang Liang L Uchida Akira A Drautz-Moses Daniela I DI Junqueira Ana Carolina M ACM Schuster Stephan C SC

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20191028 46

The atmosphere is vastly underexplored as a habitable ecosystem for microbial organisms. In this study, we investigated 795 time-resolved metagenomes from tropical air, generating 2.27 terabases of data. Despite only 9 to 17% of the generated sequence data currently being assignable to taxa, the air harbored a microbial diversity that rivals the complexity of other planetary ecosystems. The airborne microbial organisms followed a clear diel cycle, possibly driven by environmental factors. Interd ...[more]

PMID: 31659049

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Project description:Reef organisms influence microorganisms within the surrounding seawater, yet the spatial and temporal dynamics of seawater microbial communities located in proximity to corals are rarely investigated. To better understand reef seawater microbial community dynamics over time and space, we collected small-volume seawater samples during the day and night over a 72 hour period from three locations that differed in spatial distance from 5 Porites astreoides coral colonies on a shallow reef in St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands: near-coral (sampled 5 cm horizontally from each colony), reef-depth (sampled 2 m above each colony) and surface seawater (sampled 1 m from the seawater surface). At all time points and locations, we quantified abundances of microbial cells, sequenced small subunit rRNA genes of bacterial and archaeal communities, and measured inorganic nutrient concentrations. Prochlorococcus and Synechococcus cells were consistently elevated at night compared to day and these abundances changed over time, corresponding with temperature, nitrite, and silicate concentrations. During the day, bacterial and archaeal alpha diversity was significantly higher in reef-depth and near-coral seawater compared to the surface seawater, signifying that the reef influences the diversity of the seawater microorganisms. At night, alpha diversity decreased across all samples, suggesting that photosynthesis may favor a more taxonomically diverse community. While Prochlorococcus exhibited consistent temporal rhythmicity, additional taxa were enriched in reef seawater at night compared to day or in reef-depth compared to surface seawater based on their normalized sequence counts. There were some significant differences in nutrient concentrations and cell abundances between reef-depth and near-coral seawater but no clear trends. This study demonstrates that temporal variation supersedes small-scale spatial variation in proximity to corals in reef seawater microbial communities. As coral reefs continue to change in benthic composition worldwide, monitoring microbial composition in response to temporal changes and environmental fluctuations will help discern normal variability from longer lasting changes attributed to anthropogenic stressors and global climate change.

Dataset Information

Microbial communities in the tropical air ecosystem follow a precise diel cycle.

Publications

Microbial communities in the tropical air ecosystem follow a precise diel cycle.

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