Ecological drivers switch from bottom-up to top-down during model microbial community successions.

ABSTRACT: Bottom-up selection has an important role in microbial community assembly but is unable to account for all observed variance. Other processes like top-down selection (e.g., predation) may be partially responsible for the unexplained variance. However, top-down processes and their interaction with bottom-up selective pressures often remain unexplored. We utilised an in situ marine biofilm model system to test the effects of bottom-up (i.e., substrate properties) and top-down (i.e., large predator exclusion via 100 µm mesh) selective pressures on community assembly over time (56 days). Prokaryotic and eukaryotic community compositions were monitored using 16 S and 18 S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. Higher compositional variance was explained by growth substrate in early successional stages,

SUBMITTER: Tobias-Hunefeldt SP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8115227 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature