Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/86629
Title: Coastal urbanisation affects microbial communities on a dominant marine holobiont
Authors: Marzinelli, Ezequiel Miguel
Qiu, Zhiguang
Dafforn, Katherine A.
Johnston, Emma L.
Steinberg, Peter D.
Mayer-Pinto, Mariana
Keywords: Coastal Urbanisation
Microbial Communities
Issue Date: 2018
Source: Marzinelli, E. M., Qiu, Z., Dafforn, K. A., Johnston, E. L., Steinberg, P. D., & Mayer-Pinto, M. (2018). Coastal urbanisation affects microbial communities on a dominant marine holobiont. npj Biofilms and Microbiomes, 4(1), 1-.
Series/Report no.: npj Biofilms and Microbiomes
Abstract: Host-associated microbial communities play a fundamental role in the life of eukaryotic hosts. It is increasingly argued that hosts and their microbiota must be studied together as 'holobionts' to better understand the effects of environmental stressors on host functioning. Disruptions of host–microbiota interactions by environmental stressors can negatively affect host performance and survival. Substantial ecological impacts are likely when the affected hosts are habitat-forming species (e.g., trees, kelps) that underpin local biodiversity. In marine systems, coastal urbanisation via the addition of artificial structures is a major source of stress to habitat formers, but its effect on their associated microbial communities is unknown. We characterised kelp-associated microbial communities in two of the most common and abundant artificial structures in Sydney Harbour—pier-pilings and seawalls—and in neighbouring natural rocky reefs. The kelp Ecklonia radiata is the dominant habitat-forming species along 8000 km of the temperate Australian coast. Kelp-associated microbial communities on pilings differed significantly from those on seawalls and natural rocky reefs, possibly due to differences in abiotic (e.g., shade) and biotic (e.g., grazing) factors between habitats. Many bacteria that were more abundant on kelp on pilings belonged to taxa often associated with macroalgal diseases, including tissue bleaching in Ecklonia. There were, however, no differences in kelp photosynthetic capacity between habitats. The observed differences in microbial communities may have negative effects on the host by promoting fouling by macroorganisms or by causing and spreading disease over time. This study demonstrates that urbanisation can alter the microbiota of key habitat-forming species with potential ecological consequences.
URI: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/86629
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/45338
DOI: 10.1038/s41522-017-0044-z
Organisations: Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering
Rights: © 2018 The Author(s). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Fulltext Permission: open
Fulltext Availability: With Fulltext
Appears in Collections:SCELSE Journal Articles

Files in This Item:
File Description SizeFormat 
Coastal urbanisation affects microbial communities on a dominant marine holobiont.pdf1.44 MBAdobe PDFThumbnail
View/Open

SCOPUSTM   
Citations 10

41
Updated on May 27, 2023

Web of ScienceTM
Citations 10

38
Updated on May 20, 2023

Page view(s) 50

388
Updated on May 25, 2023

Download(s) 50

88
Updated on May 25, 2023

Google ScholarTM

Check

Altmetric


Plumx

Items in DR-NTU are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.