Diel population and functional synchrony of microbial communities on coral reefs

• Published in: Nature communications 2019-04, Vol.10 (1), p.1691-9, Article 1691
• Main Authors: Kelly, Linda Wegley, Nelson, Craig E., Haas, Andreas F., Naliboff, Douglas S., Calhoun, Sandi, Carlson, Craig A., Edwards, Robert A., Fox, Michael D., Hatay, Mark, Johnson, Maggie D., Kelly, Emily L. A., Lim, Yan Wei, Macherla, Saichetana, Quinlan, Zachary A., Silva, Genivaldo Gueiros Z., Vermeij, Mark J. A., Zgliczynski, Brian, Sandin, Stuart A., Smith, Jennifer E., Rohwer, Forest
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 45; 45/43; 631/158/855; 704/829/826; Alteromonas; Carbohydrates; Catabolism; Communities; Community composition; Coral Reefs; Ecosystem; Ecosystems; Environmental Monitoring; Food chains; Food webs; Halomonas; Humanities and Social Sciences; Microbial activity; Microbiomes; Microbiota; Microorganisms; multidisciplinary; Night; Nutrients; Organic Chemicals - chemistry; Organic matter; Pacific Ocean; Photoperiod; Provisioning; Psychrobacter; Remineralization; RNA, Ribosomal - chemistry; Roseobacter; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Variation; Water circulation; Water column
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09419-z

On coral reefs, microorganisms are essential for recycling nutrients to primary producers through the remineralization of benthic-derived organic matter. Diel investigations of reef processes are required to holistically understand the functional roles of microbial players in these ecosystems. Here we report a metagenomic analysis characterizing microbial communities in the water column overlying 16 remote forereef sites over a diel cycle. Our results show that microbial community composition is more dissimilar between day and night samples collected from the same site than between day or night samples collected across geographically distant reefs. Diel community differentiation is largely driven by the flux of Psychrobacter sp., which is two-orders of magnitude more abundant during the day. Nighttime communities are enriched with species of Roseobacter , Halomonas , and Alteromonas encoding a greater variety of pathways for carbohydrate catabolism, further illustrating temporal patterns of energetic provisioning between different marine microbes. Dynamic diel fluctuations of microbial populations could also support the efficient trophic transfer of energy posited in coral reef food webs. Microbes structure biogeochemical cycles and food webs in the marine environment. Here, the authors sample coral reef-associated microbes across a 24-hour period, showing clear day–night patterns of microbial populations and thus calling for more studies to consider temporal variation in microbiomes at this scale.