TY - JOUR

T1 - Fine-scale mapping of physicochemical and microbial landscapes of the coral skeleton

AU - Ricci, Francesco

AU - Tandon, Kshitij

AU - Moßhammer, Maria

AU - Cho, Ellie H.J.

AU - Blackall, Linda L.

AU - Kühl, Michael

AU - Verbruggen, Heroen

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors. Environmental Microbiology published by Applied Microbiology International and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - The coral skeleton harbours a diverse community of bacteria and microeukaryotes exposed to light, O2 and pH gradients, but how such physicochemical gradients affect the coral skeleton microbiome remains unclear. In this study, we employed chemical imaging of O2 and pH, hyperspectral reflectance imaging and spatially resolved taxonomic and inferred functional microbiome characterization to explore links between the skeleton microenvironment and microbiome in the reef-building corals Porites lutea and Paragoniastrea benhami. The physicochemical environment was more stable in the deep skeleton, and the diversity and evenness of the bacterial community increased with skeletal depth, suggesting that the microbiome was stratified along the physicochemical gradients. The bulk of the coral skeleton was in a low O2 habitat, whereas pH varied from pH 6–9 with depth. Physicochemical gradients of O2 and pH of the coral skeleton explained the β-diversity of the bacterial communities, and skeletal layers that showed O2 peaks had a higher relative abundance of endolithic algae, reflecting a link between the abiotic environment and the microbiome composition. Our study links the physicochemical, microbial and functional landscapes of the coral skeleton and provides new insights into the involvement of skeletal microbes in the coral holobiont metabolism.

AB - The coral skeleton harbours a diverse community of bacteria and microeukaryotes exposed to light, O2 and pH gradients, but how such physicochemical gradients affect the coral skeleton microbiome remains unclear. In this study, we employed chemical imaging of O2 and pH, hyperspectral reflectance imaging and spatially resolved taxonomic and inferred functional microbiome characterization to explore links between the skeleton microenvironment and microbiome in the reef-building corals Porites lutea and Paragoniastrea benhami. The physicochemical environment was more stable in the deep skeleton, and the diversity and evenness of the bacterial community increased with skeletal depth, suggesting that the microbiome was stratified along the physicochemical gradients. The bulk of the coral skeleton was in a low O2 habitat, whereas pH varied from pH 6–9 with depth. Physicochemical gradients of O2 and pH of the coral skeleton explained the β-diversity of the bacterial communities, and skeletal layers that showed O2 peaks had a higher relative abundance of endolithic algae, reflecting a link between the abiotic environment and the microbiome composition. Our study links the physicochemical, microbial and functional landscapes of the coral skeleton and provides new insights into the involvement of skeletal microbes in the coral holobiont metabolism.

U2 - 10.1111/1462-2920.16369

DO - 10.1111/1462-2920.16369

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 36951365

AN - SCOPUS:85151938615

VL - 25

SP - 1505

EP - 1521

JO - Environmental Microbiology

JF - Environmental Microbiology

SN - 1462-2912

IS - 8

ER -