title: Beta diversity of marine bacteria depends on temporal scale.
abstract: Factors controlling the spatial distribution of bacterial diversity have been intensely studied, whereas less is known about temporal changes. To address this, we tested whether the mechanisms that underlie bacterial temporal beta-diversity vary across different scales in three marine microbial communities. While seasonal turnover was detected, at least 73% of the community variation occurred at intra-seasonal temporal scales, suggesting that episodic events are important in structuring marine microbial communities. In addition, turnover at different temporal scales appeared to be driven by different factors. Intra-seasonal turnover was significantly correlated to environmental variables such as phosphate and silicate concentrations, while seasonal and interannual turnover were related to nitrate concentration and temporal distance. We observed a strong link between the magnitude of environmental variation and bacterial beta-diversity in different communities. Analogous to spatial biogeography, we found different rates of community changes across temporal scales.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, California 92697, USA.
authors.forename: Stephen M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Hatosy
authors.forename: Jennifer B H
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Martiny
authors.forename: Rohan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sachdeva
authors.forename: Joshua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Steele
authors.forename: Jed A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Fuhrman
authors.forename: Adam C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Martiny
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification*; D044822:Biodiversity; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D013997:Time Factors; D014871:Water Microbiology