Abstract
Productivity is a major determinant of ecosystem diversity. Microbial ecosystems are the most diverse on the planet yet very few relationships between diversity and productivity have been reported as compared with macro-ecological studies. Here we evaluated the spatial relationships of productivity and microbiome diversity in a laboratory-cultivated photosynthetic mat. The goal was to determine how spatial diversification of microorganisms drives localized carbon and energy acquisition rates. We measured sub-millimeter depth profiles of net primary productivity and gross oxygenic photosynthesis in the context of the localized microenvironment and community structure, and observed negative correlations between species richness and productivity within the energy-replete, photic zone. Variations between localized community structures were associated with distinct taxa as well as environmental profiles describing a continuum of biological niches. Spatial regions in the photic zone corresponding to high primary productivity and photosynthesis rates had relatively low-species richness and high evenness. Hence, this system exhibited negative species–productivity and species–energy relationships. These negative relationships may be indicative of stratified, light-driven microbial ecosystems that are able to be the most productive with a relatively smaller, even distributions of species that specialize within photic zones.
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the US Department of Energy Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) Genomic Science Program and is a contribution of the Fundamental Scientific Focus Area. The work conducted by the U.S. DOE Joint Genome Institute was supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. DOE under contract No. DE-AC0205CH11231 and Community Sequencing Project 701. HCB and RSR are grateful for support given by the Linus Pauling Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship, a Laboratory Directed Research program at PNNL. We wish to acknowledge William P. Inskeep, William C. Nelson, James C. Stegen and Jennifer M. Mobberley for helpful discussions and critical review of this study. PNNL is operated for the DOE by Battelle Memorial Institute under Contract DE-AC05-76RLO 1830.
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Bernstein, H., Brislawn, C., Renslow, R. et al. Trade-offs between microbiome diversity and productivity in a stratified microbial mat. ISME J 11, 405–414 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2016.133
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2016.133
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