Composition influences the pathway but not the outcome of the metabolic response of bacterioplankton to resource shifts.

ABSTRACT: Bacterioplankton community metabolism is central to the functioning of aquatic ecosystems, and strongly reactive to changes in the environment, yet the processes underlying this response remain unclear. Here we explore the role that community composition plays in shaping the bacterial metabolic response to resource gradients that occur along aquatic ecotones in a complex watershed in Québec. Our results show that the response is mediated by complex shifts in community structure, and structural equation analysis confirmed two main pathways, one involving adjustments in the level of activity of existing phylotypes, and the other the replacement of the dominant phylotypes. These contrasting response pathways were not determined by the type or the intensity of the gradients involved, as we had

SUBMITTER: Comte J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3181318 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature