Annual community patterns are driven by seasonal switching between closely related marine bacteria.

ABSTRACT: Marine microbes exhibit seasonal cycles in community composition, yet the key drivers of these patterns and microbial population fidelity to specific environmental conditions remain to be determined. To begin addressing these questions, we characterized microbial dynamics weekly for 3 years at a temperate, coastal site with dramatic environmental seasonality. This high-resolution time series reveals that changes in microbial community composition are not continuous; over the duration of the time series, the community instead resolves into distinct summer and winter profiles with rapid spring and fall transitions between these states. Here, we show that these community shifts involve switching between closely related strains that exhibit either summer or winter preferences. Moreover, taxa r

SUBMITTER: Ward CS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5437356 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature