サンゴ礁の微生物が生態系の健全性を評価する新しい方法を指し示す(Coral reef microbes point to new way to assess ecosystem health)

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2024-04-17 インペリアル・カレッジ・ロンドン(ICL)

新しい研究によると、海洋の酸性化がサンゴ礁の微生物の構成を変化させており、これが生態系の健康を評価する新たな方法となり得ることが示されました。インペリアル・カレッジ・ロンドンの研究チームは、パプアニューギニアのCO2噴出口近くのサンゴ礁からサンプルを採取し、遺伝子配列分析と質量分析を用いて、微生物と代謝産物を調査しました。研究では、海洋内のCO2濃度が上がるにつれて、サンゴ礁の大型生物群と微生物群の間の類似性が増すことが分かりました。これは生態系ストレスの早期指標として有用であり、生態系への人間活動の影響を理解し、適切な保全策を講じるための「生態系アプローチ」の重要性を強調しています。

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海洋酸性化でサンゴ礁のホロビオント群集が減少 Decline of a distinct coral reef holobiont community under ocean acidification

Jake Williams,Nathalie Pettorelli,Aaron C. Hartmann,Robert A. Quinn,Laetitia Plaisance,Michael O’Mahoney,Chris P. Meyer,Katharina E. Fabricius,Nancy Knowlton & Emma Ransome
Microbiome  Published:17 April 2024
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-023-01683-y

サンゴ礁の微生物が生態系の健全性を評価する新しい方法を指し示す(Coral reef microbes point to new way to assess ecosystem health)

Abstract

Background
Microbes play vital roles across coral reefs both in the environment and inside and upon macrobes (holobionts), where they support critical functions such as nutrition and immune system modulation. These roles highlight the potential ecosystem-level importance of microbes, yet most knowledge of microbial functions on reefs is derived from a small set of holobionts such as corals and sponges. Declining seawater pH — an important global coral reef stressor — can cause ecosystem-level change on coral reefs, providing an opportunity to study the role of microbes at this scale. We use an in situ experimental approach to test the hypothesis that under such ocean acidification (OA), known shifts among macrobe trophic and functional groups may drive a general ecosystem-level response extending across macrobes and microbes, leading to reduced distinctness between the benthic holobiont community microbiome and the environmental microbiome.

Results
We test this hypothesis using genetic and chemical data from benthic coral reef community holobionts sampled across a pH gradient from CO2 seeps in Papua New Guinea. We find support for our hypothesis; under OA, the microbiome and metabolome of the benthic holobiont community become less compositionally distinct from the sediment microbiome and metabolome, suggesting that benthic macrobe communities are colonised by environmental microbes to a higher degree under OA conditions. We also find a simplification and homogenisation of the benthic photosynthetic community, and an increased abundance of fleshy macroalgae, consistent with previously observed reef microbialisation.

Conclusions
We demonstrate a novel structural shift in coral reefs involving macrobes and microbes: that the microbiome of the benthic holobiont community becomes less distinct from the sediment microbiome under OA. Our findings suggest that microbialisation and the disruption of macrobe trophic networks are interwoven general responses to environmental stress, pointing towards a universal, undesirable, and measurable form of ecosystem changed.

生物環境工学
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