Microbial Community Dynamics in Aquatic Ecosystems

Microbial communities in lakes, rivers, estuaries and oceans constitute the invisible engine of aquatic biogeochemical cycling, mediating processes from carbon fixation to nutrient remineralisation. Their composition and function fluctuate in response to physical drivers such as temperature, light, mixing and hydrostatic pressure, as well as chemical variables including nutrient availability, salinity and redox potential. Dynamic interactions among bacteria, archaea, viruses and microeukaryotes give rise to successional patterns during events such as phytoplankton blooms, organic matter inputs or anthropogenic perturbations. In addition, surface‐attached biofilms on sediments and artificial substrates provide microhabitats with steep chemical gradients that foster specialised metabolisms. Advances in high‐throughput sequencing and ‘omics techniques have revealed that community turnover and gene expression changes jointly shape ecosystem responses, while also exposing vast reservoirs of uncharacterised diversity with potential applications in biotechnology and climate mitigation. Understanding these dynamics is essential for predicting ecosystem resilience, informing water-management strategies and safeguarding the services that aquatic environments provide to human societies.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have revealed that bacteria within the Roseobacter group play a key role in thiosulfate oxidation within marine biofilms. Genome sequencing of biofilm‐associated strains uncovered conserved sox gene clusters and plasmids that support anaerobic and aerobic metabolism, while metatranscriptomic surveys confirmed the global prevalence of these lineages in diverse marine substrates. Functional assays demonstrated that thiosulfate induces sox expression, modifies membrane proteomes and promotes biofilm formation, underlining the importance of niche‐specific sulphur cycling in coastal and deep‐sea systems. Analyses of bacterioplankton communities upstream and downstream of a large dam have shown that impoundment alters taxonomic composition and functional gene abundance. Sites directly influenced by backwater conditions exhibited shifts in nitrogen‐cycling Betaproteobacteria and enhanced gene categories for carbon and sulphur metabolism, whereas riverine sites maintained a different functional profile. These findings illustrate how engineering interventions can reshape microbial networks, with implications for nutrient fluxes and reservoir management.

Microbial Community Dynamics in Aquatic Ecosystems publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in microbial community dynamics in aquatic ecosystems across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Metagenomics: Culture-independent sequencing of total environmental DNA to profile community composition and functional potential.

Biofilm: A structured consortium of microorganisms attached to a surface and embedded in a self-produced matrix.

Bacterioplankton: Free‐living bacterial populations suspended in the water column, crucial for organic matter degradation and nutrient cycling.

Polysaccharide Utilisation Loci (PUL): Genomic clusters encoding enzymes and transporters specialised for complex carbohydrate breakdown.

Piezophilic: Organisms adapted to thrive under high hydrostatic pressure, often found in deep‐sea or deep‐reservoir environments.

References

1. Anaerobic thiosulfate oxidation by the Roseobacter group is prevalent in marine biofilms. Nature Communications (2023).
2. The Sorcerer II Global Ocean Sampling Expedition: Northwest Atlantic through Eastern Tropical Pacific. PLOS Biology (2007).
3. Dissolved storage glycans shaped the community composition of abundant bacterioplankton clades during a North Sea spring phytoplankton bloom. Microbiome (2023).
4. Elevated hydrostatic pressure enhances the potential for microbially mediated carbon sequestration at the sediment–water interface in a deep-water reservoir by modulating functional genes and metabolic pathways. Carbon Research (2024).
5. Recurring patterns in bacterioplankton dynamics during coastal spring algae blooms. eLife (2016).