How do microbiota associated with an invasive seaweed vary across scales?

Communities are shaped by scale dependent processes. To study the diversity and variation of microbial communities across scales, the invasive and widespread seaweed Agarophyton vermiculophyllum presents a unique opportunity. We characterized pro- and eukaryotic communities associated with this holobiont across its known distribution range, which stretches over the northern hemisphere. Our data reveal that community composition and diversity in the holobiont vary at local but also larger geographic scales. While processes acting at the local scale (i.e., within population) are the main structuring drivers of associated microbial communities, changes in community composition also depend on processes acting at larger geographic scales. Interestingly, the largest analyzed scale (i.e., native and nonnative ranges) explained variation in the prevalence of predicted functional groups, which could suggest a functional shift in microbiota occurred over the course of the invasion process. While high variability in microbiota at the local scale supports A. vermiculophyllum to be a generalist host, we also identified a number of core taxa. These geographically independent holobiont members imply that co-introduction of specific microbiota may have additionally promoted the invasion process.

Identifier
Source https://data.blue-cloud.org/search-details?step=~0124E268ADE6036D4E4887920242661F581D1195161
Metadata Access https://data.blue-cloud.org/api/collections/4E268ADE6036D4E4887920242661F581D1195161
Provenance
Publisher Blue-Cloud Data Discovery & Access service; ELIXIR-ENA
Publication Year 2025
OpenAccess true
Contact blue-cloud-support(at)maris.nl
Representation
Discipline Marine Science
Spatial Coverage (-122.909W, 36.053S, 144.950E, 54.486N)
Temporal Coverage Begin 2016-09-14T00:00:00Z
Temporal Coverage End 2017-09-23T00:00:00Z