Habitat shapes diversity of gut microbiomes in a wild population of blue tits Cyanistes caeruleus

Microbiome constitutes an important axis of individual variation that, together with genes and the environment, influences an individual's physiology and fitness. Microbiomes are dependent not only on an individual's body condition but also on external factors, such as diet or stress level...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of avian biology 2022-02, Vol.2022 (2), p.n/a
Main Authors: Drobniak, Szymon M., Cichoń, Mariusz, Janas, Katarzyna, Barczyk, Julia, Gustafsson, Lars, Zagalska‐Neubauer, Magdalena
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal population
Animal populations
biodiversity
Birds
blue tit
Body condition
Breeding
Composition
Cyanistes caeruleus
Deciduous forests
Diet
ecological microbiology
Environmental factors
Genes
gut bacteria
habitat
Habitats
Intestinal flora
Intestinal microflora
Meadows
microbial ecology
microbiome
Microbiomes
Physiology
Population studies
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Summary:Microbiome constitutes an important axis of individual variation that, together with genes and the environment, influences an individual's physiology and fitness. Microbiomes are dependent not only on an individual's body condition but also on external factors, such as diet or stress levels, and as such can be involved into feedbacks between the external ecological factors and internal physiology. In our study, we used a wild population of blue tits Cyanistes caeruleus to investigate the impact of external habitat composition on the microbiome of adult birds. We hypothesized that – through differences in plant composition, potentially affecting diet complexity – habitat type may impact the diversity and structure of the gut microbiome. Blue tits breeding in dense deciduous forests tended to have more diverse microbiomes and be significantly different in terms of microbiome composition from birds breeding in open, sparsely forested hay meadows. Distinct study plots also tended to differ in a number of parameters describing microbiome diversity. We observed no microbiome differentiation according to individual characteristics such as sex or age. The study emphasizes that external environment is one of the important modulators of microbiome diversity and calls for more such studies in wild animal populations.
ISSN:0908-8857
1600-048X
1600-048X
DOI:10.1111/jav.02829