TY - JOUR

T1 - Microeukaryotic plankton evolutionary constraints in a subtropical river explained by environment and bacteria along differing taxonomic resolutions

AU - Ren, Kexin

AU - Mo, Yuanyuan

AU - Xiao, Peng

AU - Rønn, Regin

AU - Xu, Zijie

AU - Xue, Yuanyuan

AU - Chen, Huihuang

AU - Rivera, Windell L

AU - Rensing, Christopher

AU - Yang, Jun

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - Microeukaryotic plankton communities are keystone components for keeping aquatic primary productivity. Currently, variations in microeukaryotic plankton diversity have often been explained by local ecological factors but not by evolutionary constraints. We used amplicon sequencing of 100 water samples across five years to investigate the ecological preferences of the microeukaryotic plankton community in a subtropical riverine ecosystem. We found that microeukaryotic plankton diversity was less associated with bacterial abundance (16S rRNA gene copy number) than bacterial diversity. Further, environmental effects exhibited a larger influence on microeukaryotic plankton community composition than bacterial community composition, especially at fine taxonomic levels. The evolutionary constraints of microeukaryotic plankton community increased with decreasing taxonomic resolution (from 97% to 91% similarity levels), but not significant change from 85% to 70% similarity levels. However, compared with the bacterial community, the evolutionary constraints were shown to be more affected by environmental variables. This study illustrated possible controlling environmental and bacterial drivers of microeukaryotic diversity and community assembly in a subtropical river, thereby indirectly reflecting on the quality status of the water environment by providing new clues on the microeukaryotic community assembly.

AB - Microeukaryotic plankton communities are keystone components for keeping aquatic primary productivity. Currently, variations in microeukaryotic plankton diversity have often been explained by local ecological factors but not by evolutionary constraints. We used amplicon sequencing of 100 water samples across five years to investigate the ecological preferences of the microeukaryotic plankton community in a subtropical riverine ecosystem. We found that microeukaryotic plankton diversity was less associated with bacterial abundance (16S rRNA gene copy number) than bacterial diversity. Further, environmental effects exhibited a larger influence on microeukaryotic plankton community composition than bacterial community composition, especially at fine taxonomic levels. The evolutionary constraints of microeukaryotic plankton community increased with decreasing taxonomic resolution (from 97% to 91% similarity levels), but not significant change from 85% to 70% similarity levels. However, compared with the bacterial community, the evolutionary constraints were shown to be more affected by environmental variables. This study illustrated possible controlling environmental and bacterial drivers of microeukaryotic diversity and community assembly in a subtropical river, thereby indirectly reflecting on the quality status of the water environment by providing new clues on the microeukaryotic community assembly.

U2 - 10.1093/ismeco/ycae026

DO - 10.1093/ismeco/ycae026

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 38559570

VL - 4

JO - ISME communications

JF - ISME communications

SN - 2730-6151

IS - 1

M1 - ycae026

ER -