Dispersal timing and drought history influence the response of bacterioplankton to drying–rewetting stress

The extent and frequency of drought episodes is expected to increase in the following decades making it a crucial stress factor for smaller water bodies. However, very little is known about how bacterioplankton is affected by increased evaporation and how these communities reassemble after rewetting...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The ISME Journal 2017-08, Vol.11 (8), p.1764-1776
Main Authors: Székely, Anna J, Langenheder, Silke
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
45/77
45/90
631/158/2459
631/158/853
631/326/2565/855
704/158/855
704/286
Bacteria
Bacteria - classification
Bacterial Physiological Phenomena
Bacterioplankton
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Climate Change
Communities
Composition effects
Desiccants
Desiccation
Dispersal
Dispersion
Drought
Droughts
Drying
Ecology
Environment
Environmental changes
Evaporation
Evolutionary Biology
Initial conditions
Life Sciences
Microbial Ecology
Microbial Genetics and Genomics
Microbiology
Original
original-article
Phase transitions
Recovery of function
Stress history
Time measurement
Water Microbiology
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Summary:The extent and frequency of drought episodes is expected to increase in the following decades making it a crucial stress factor for smaller water bodies. However, very little is known about how bacterioplankton is affected by increased evaporation and how these communities reassemble after rewetting. Here, we present results from a microcosm experiment that assessed the effect of drying–rewetting stress on bacterioplankton in the light of the stress history and the rate and timing of dispersal after the rewetting. We found that the drying phase resulted mainly in a change of function, whereas the complete desiccation and rewetting processes strongly affected both composition and function, which were, however, influenced by the initial conditions and stress history of the communities. Effects of dispersal were generally stronger when it occurred at an early stage after the rewetting. At this stage, selective establishment of dispersed bacteria coupled with enhanced compositional and functional recovery was found, whereas effects of dispersal were neutral, that is, predictable by dispersal rates, at later stages. Our studies therefore show that both the stress history and the timing of dispersal are important factors that influence the response of bacterial communities to environmental change and stress events.
ISSN:1751-7362
1751-7370
1751-7370
DOI:10.1038/ismej.2017.55