16S metabarcoding sequencing data associated with Melitaea cinxia larvae in Åland from 1995 to 2022
Thermal stress can cause microbial disruption in many species. As host-associated microbes support essential functions in host metabolism, physiology, nutrition and immunity, dysbiosis can have severe fitness consequences for the host. Although the effects of thermal conditions on host-associated microbiomes have been demonstrated in controlled laboratory settings, the long-term effects of climate change, characterized by gradual warming as well as extreme weather events, on the structure and functionality of microbial communities in wild populations remain poorly understood. Here, we take advantage of the well-characterized long-term field survey of the Glanville fritillary butterfly (Melitaea cinxia) metapopulation on the Åland islands, in the Baltic Sea, to investigate whether bacterial communities associated with the gut of larvae show signs of gradual temporal change in response to slow environmental warming across a 28-year period, or an abrupt change following sudden drought events that triggered host population bottlenecks. Using 16S rRNA metabarcoding, we show that M. cinxia harbours a set of stable resident bacteria, including Pseudomonas, Telluria, and Enterobacteriaceae bacteria. Through the decades, gradually increasing temperatures were associated with high abundance of Telluria, and high precipitation with high Pseudomonas abundance. Meanwhile, an extreme drought event triggered acute disruption, with Enterobacter species collapsing. Following this abrupt change, we observed a delayed recovery of Enterobacter in subsequent years, suggesting some form of resilience in the bacterial community to acute climatic events. Our study shows that climate change can induce a gradual shift in the abundance of key bacterial taxa in wild species, and extreme drought can cause acute dysbiosis. But our study also shows that the gut bacterial communities of a wild species can recover with the return to pre-drought environmental conditions.
Thermal stress can cause microbial disruption in many species. As host-associated microbes support essential functions in host metabolism, physiology, nutrition and immunity, dysbiosis can have severe fitness consequences for the host. Although the effects of thermal conditions on host-associated microbiomes have been demonstrated in controlled laboratory settings, the long-term effects of climate change, characterized by gradual warming as well as extreme weather events, on the structure and functionality of microbial communities in wild populations remain poorly understood. Here, we take advantage of the well-characterized long-term field survey of the Glanville fritillary butterfly (Melitaea cinxia) metapopulation on the Åland islands, in the Baltic Sea, to investigate whether bacterial communities associated with the gut of larvae show signs of gradual temporal change in response to slow environmental warming across a 28-year period, or an abrupt change following sudden drought events that triggered host population bottlenecks. Using 16S rRNA metabarcoding, we show that M. cinxia harbours a set of stable resident bacteria, including Pseudomonas, Telluria, and Enterobacteriaceae bacteria. Through the decades, gradually increasing temperatures were associated with high abundance of Telluria, and high precipitation with high Pseudomonas abundance. Meanwhile, an extreme drought event triggered acute disruption, with Enterobacter species collapsing. Following this abrupt change, we observed a delayed recovery of Enterobacter in subsequent years, suggesting some form of resilience in the bacterial community to acute climatic events. Our study shows that climate change can induce a gradual shift in the abundance of key bacterial taxa in wild species, and extreme drought can cause acute dysbiosis. But our study also shows that the gut bacterial communities of a wild species can recover with the return to pre-drought environmental conditions.
University of helsinki