The biogeography of community assembly: latitude and predation drive variation in community trait distribution in a guild of epifaunal crustaceans.

While considerable evidence exists of biogeographic patterns in the intensity of species interactions, the influence of these patterns on variation in community structure is less clear. Studying how the distributions of traits in communities vary along global gradients can inform how variation in interactions and other factors contribute to the process of community assembly. Using a model selection approach on measures of trait dispersion in crustaceans associated with eelgrass (Zostera marina) spanning 30° of latitude in two oceans, we found that dispersion strongly increased with increasing predation and decreasing latitude. Ocean and epiphyte load appeared as secondary predictors; Pacific communities were more overdispersed while Atlantic communities were more clustered, and increasing epiphytes were associated with increased clustering. By examining how species interactions and environmental filters influence community structure across biogeographic regions, we demonstrate how both latitudinal variation in species interactions and historical contingency shape these responses. Community trait distributions have implications for ecosystem stability and functioning, and integrating large-scale observations of environmental filters, species interactions and traits can help us predict how communities may respond to environmental change.

Phylogenetic patterns of ant-fungus associations indicate that farming strategies, not only a superior fungal cultivar, explain the ecological success of leafcutter ants.

To elucidate fungicultural specializations contributing to ecological dominance of leafcutter ants, we estimate the phylogeny of fungi cultivated by fungus-growing (attine) ants, including fungal cultivars from (i) the entire leafcutter range from southern South America to southern North America, (ii) all higher-attine ant lineages (leafcutting genera Atta, Acromyrmex; nonleafcutting genera Trachymyrmex, Sericomyrmex) and (iii) all lower-attine lineages. Higher-attine fungi form two clades, Clade-A fungi (Leucocoprinus gongylophorus, formerly Attamyces) previously thought to be cultivated only by leafcutter ants, and a sister clade, Clade-B fungi, previously thought to be cultivated only by Trachymyrmex and Sericomyrmex ants. Contradicting this traditional view, we find that (i) leafcutter ants are not specialized to cultivate only Clade-A fungi because some leafcutter species ranging across South America cultivate Clade-B fungi; (ii) Trachymyrmex ants are not specialized to cultivate only Clade-B fungi because some Trachymyrmex species cultivate Clade-A fungi and other Trachymyrmex species cultivate fungi known so far only from lower-attine ants; (iii) in some locations, single higher-attine ant species or closely related cryptic species cultivate both Clade-A and Clade-B fungi; and (iv) ant-fungus co-evolution among higher-attine mutualisms is therefore less specialized than previously thought. Sympatric leafcutter ants can be ecologically dominant when cultivating either Clade-A or Clade-B fungi, sustaining with either cultivar-type huge nests that command large foraging territories; conversely, sympatric Trachymyrmex ants cultivating either Clade-A or Clade-B fungi can be locally abundant without achieving the ecological dominance of leafcutter ants. Ecological dominance of leafcutter ants therefore does not depend primarily on specialized fungiculture of L. gongylophorus (Clade-A), but must derive from ant-fungus synergisms and unique ant adaptations.

Global-Scale Structure of the Eelgrass Microbiome.

Plant-associated microorganisms are essential for their hosts' survival and performance. Yet, most plant microbiome studies to date have focused on terrestrial species sampled across relatively small spatial scales. Here, we report the results of a global-scale analysis of microbial communities associated with leaf and root surfaces of the marine eelgrass Zostera marina throughout its range in the Northern Hemisphere. By contrasting host microbiomes with those of surrounding seawater and sediment, we uncovered the structure, composition, and variability of microbial communities associated with eelgrass. We also investigated hypotheses about the assembly of the eelgrass microbiome using a metabolic modeling approach. Our results reveal leaf communities displaying high variability and spatial turnover that mirror their adjacent coastal seawater microbiomes. By contrast, roots showed relatively low compositional turnover and were distinct from surrounding sediment communities, a result driven by the enrichment of predicted sulfur-oxidizing bacterial taxa on root surfaces. Predictions from metabolic modeling of enriched taxa were consistent with a habitat-filtering community assembly mechanism whereby similarity in resource use drives taxonomic cooccurrence patterns on belowground, but not aboveground, host tissues. Our work provides evidence for a core eelgrass root microbiome with putative functional roles and highlights potentially disparate processes influencing microbial community assembly on different plant compartments.IMPORTANCE Plants depend critically on their associated microbiome, yet the structure of microbial communities found on marine plants remains poorly understood in comparison to that for terrestrial species. Seagrasses are the only flowering plants that live entirely in marine environments. The return of terrestrial seagrass ancestors to oceans is among the most extreme habitat shifts documented in plants, making them an ideal testbed for the study of microbial symbioses with plants that experience relatively harsh abiotic conditions. In this study, we report the results of a global sampling effort to extensively characterize the structure of microbial communities associated with the widespread seagrass species Zostera marina, or eelgrass, across its geographic range. Our results reveal major differences in the structure and composition of above- versus belowground microbial communities on eelgrass surfaces, as well as their relationships with the environment and host.

Prevalence and beta diversity in avian malaria communities: host species is a better predictor than geography.

Patterns of diversity and turnover in macroorganism communities can often be predicted from differences in habitat, phylogenetic relationships among species and the geographical scale of comparisons. In this study, we asked whether these factors also predict diversity and turnover in parasite communities. We studied communities of avian malaria in two sympatric, ecologically similar, congeneric host species at three different sites. We asked whether parasite prevalence and community structure varied with host population, host phylogeography or geographical distance. We used PCR to screen birds for infections and then used Bayesian methods to determine phylogenetic relationships among malaria strains. Metrics of both community and phylogenetic beta diversity were used to examine patterns of malaria strain turnover between host populations, and partial Mantel tests were used determine the correlation between malaria beta diversity and geographical distance. Finally, we developed microsatellite markers to describe the genetic structure of host populations and assess the relationship between host phylogeography and parasite beta diversity. We found that different genera of malaria parasites infect the two hosts at different rates. Within hosts, parasite communities in one population were phylogenetically clustered, but there was otherwise no correlation between metrics of parasite beta diversity and geographical or genetic distance between host populations. Patterns of parasite turnover among host populations are consistent with malaria transmission occurring in the winter rather than on the breeding grounds. Our results indicate greater turnover in parasite communities between different hosts than between different study sites. Differences in host species, as well as transmission location and vector ecology, seem to be more important in structuring malaria communities than the distance-decay relationships frequently found in macroorganisms. Determining the factors affecting parasite community diversity and turnover has wide-ranging implications for understanding the selective pressures shaping host ecology and ecosystem structure. This study shows that metrics of community and phylogenetic beta diversity can be useful tools for disentangling the ecological and evolutionary processes that underlie geographical variation in parasite communities.

Local environment drives rapid shifts in composition and phylogenetic clustering of seagrass microbiomes.

Plant microbiomes depend on environmental conditions, stochasticity, host species, and genotype identity. Eelgrass (Zostera marina) is a unique system for plant-microbe interactions as a marine angiosperm growing in a physiologically-challenging environment with anoxic sediment, periodic exposure to air at low tide, and fluctuations in water clarity and flow. We tested the influence of host origin versus environment on eelgrass microbiome composition by transplanting 768 plants among four sites within Bodega Harbor, CA. Over three months following transplantation, we sampled microbial communities monthly on leaves and roots and sequenced the V4-V5 region of the 16S rRNA gene to assess community composition. The main driver of leaf and root microbiome composition was destination site; more modest effects of host origin site did not last longer than one month. Community phylogenetic analyses suggested that environmental filtering structures these communities, but the strength and nature of this filtering varies among sites and over time and roots and leaves show opposing gradients in clustering along a temperature gradient. We demonstrate that local environmental differences create rapid shifts in associated microbial community composition with potential functional implications for rapid host acclimation under shifting environmental conditions.

The effect of warming on seagrass wasting disease depends on host genotypic identity and diversity.

Temperature increases due to climate change have affected the distribution and severity of diseases in natural systems, causing outbreaks that can destroy host populations. Host identity, diversity, and the associated microbiome can affect host responses to both infection and temperature, but little is known about how they could function as important mediators of disease in altered thermal environments. We conducted an 8-week warming experiment to test the independent and interactive effects of warming, host genotypic identity, and host genotypic diversity on the prevalence and intensity of infections of seagrass (Zostera marina) by the wasting disease parasite (Labyrinthula zosterae). At elevated temperatures, we found that genotypically diverse host assemblages had reduced infection intensity, but not reduced prevalence, relative to less diverse assemblages. This dilution effect on parasite intensity was the result of both host composition effects as well as emergent properties of biodiversity. In contrast with the benefits of genotypic diversity under warming, diversity actually increased parasite intensity slightly in ambient temperatures. We found mixed support for the hypothesis that a growth-defense trade-off contributed to elevated disease intensity under warming. Changes in the abundance (but not composition) of a few taxa in the host microbiome were correlated with genotype-specific responses to wasting disease infections under warming, consistent with the emerging evidence linking changes in the host microbiome to the outcome of host-parasite interactions. This work emphasizes the context dependence of biodiversity-disease relationships and highlights the potential importance of interactions among biodiversity loss, climate change, and disease outbreaks in a key foundation species.

Artificial Selection on Microbiomes To Breed Microbiomes That Confer Salt Tolerance to Plants.

We develop a method to artificially select for rhizosphere microbiomes that confer salt tolerance to the model grass Brachypodium distachyon grown under sodium salt stress or aluminum salt stress. In a controlled greenhouse environment, we differentially propagated rhizosphere microbiomes between plants of a nonevolving, highly inbred plant population; therefore, only microbiomes evolved in our experiment, but the plants did not evolve in parallel. To maximize microbiome perpetuation when transplanting microbiomes between plants and, thus, maximize response to microbiome selection, we improved earlier methods by (i) controlling microbiome assembly when inoculating seeds at the beginning of each selection cycle; (ii) fractionating microbiomes before transfer between plants to harvest, perpetuate, and select on only bacterial and viral microbiome components; (iii) ramping of salt stress gradually from minor to extreme salt stress with each selection cycle to minimize the chance of overstressing plants; (iv) using two nonselection control treatments (e.g., nonselection microbial enrichment and null inoculation) that permit comparison to the improving fitness benefits that selected microbiomes impart on plants. Unlike previous methods, our selection protocol generated microbiomes that enhance plant fitness after only 1 to 3 rounds of microbiome selection. After nine rounds of microbiome selection, the effect of microbiomes selected to confer tolerance to aluminum salt stress was nonspecific (these artificially selected microbiomes equally ameliorate sodium and aluminum salt stresses), but the effect of microbiomes selected to confer tolerance to sodium salt stress was specific (these artificially selected microbiomes do not confer tolerance to aluminum salt stress). Plants with artificially selected microbiomes had 55 to 205% greater seed production than plants with unselected control microbiomes. IMPORTANCE We developed an experimental protocol that improves earlier methods of artificial selection on microbiomes and then tested the efficacy of our protocol to breed root-associated bacterial microbiomes that confer salt tolerance to a plant. Salt stress limits growth and seed production of crop plants, and artificially selected microbiomes conferring salt tolerance may ultimately help improve agricultural productivity. Unlike previous experiments of microbiome selection, our selection protocol generated microbiomes that enhance plant productivity after only 1 to 3 rounds of artificial selection on root-associated microbiomes, increasing seed production under extreme salt stress by 55 to 205% after nine rounds of microbiome selection. Although we artificially selected microbiomes under controlled greenhouse conditions that differ from outdoor conditions, increasing seed production by 55 to 205% under extreme salt stress is a remarkable enhancement of plant productivity compared to traditional plant breeding. We describe a series of additional experimental protocols that will advance insights into key parameters that determine efficacy and response to microbiome selection.