title: Coastal bacterioplankton community dynamics in response to a natural disturbance.
abstract: In order to characterize how disturbances to microbial communities are propagated over temporal and spatial scales in aquatic environments, the dynamics of bacterial assemblages throughout a subtropical coastal embayment were investigated via SSU rRNA gene analyses over an 8-month period, which encompassed a large storm event. During non-perturbed conditions, sampling sites clustered into three groups based on their microbial community composition: an offshore oceanic group, a freshwater group, and a distinct and persistent coastal group. Significant differences in measured environmental parameters or in the bacterial community due to the storm event were found only within the coastal cluster of sampling sites, and only at 5 of 12 locations; three of these sites showed a significant response in both environmental and bacterial community characteristics. These responses were most pronounced at sites close to the shoreline. During the storm event, otherwise common bacterioplankton community members such as marine Synechococcus sp. and members of the SAR11 clade of Alphaproteobacteria decreased in relative abundance in the affected coastal zone, whereas several lineages of Gammaproteobacteria, Betaproteobacteria, and members of the Roseobacter clade of Alphaproteobacteria increased. The complex spatial patterns in both environmental conditions and microbial community structure related to freshwater runoff and wind convection during the perturbation event leads us to conclude that spatial heterogeneity was an important factor influencing both the dynamics and the resistance of the bacterioplankton communities to disturbances throughout this complex subtropical coastal system. This heterogeneity may play a role in facilitating a rapid rebound of regions harboring distinctly coastal bacterioplankton communities to their pre-disturbed taxonomic composition.
authors: Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawaii, Kaneohe, Hawaii, United States of America.
authors: Sara K
authors: SK
authors: Yeo
authors: Megan J
authors: MJ
authors: Huggett
authors: Alexander
authors: A
authors: Eiler
authors: Michael S
authors: MS
authors: Rappé
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics*; D061006:Bays; D055907:Climatic Processes; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D010933:Plankton / Q000382:microbiology*; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012329:RNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D012335:RNA, Ribosomal / Q000235:genetics; D017423:Sequence Analysis, RNA; D062211:Spatio-Temporal Analysis
chemical_list: D012329:RNA, Bacterial; D012335:RNA, Ribosomal