Sullam, Karen; Matthews, Blake; Aebischer, Thierry; Seehausen, Ole; Bürgmann, Helmut (2017). The effect of top-predator presence and phenotype on aquatic microbial communities. Ecology and evolution, 7(5), pp. 1572-1582. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10.1002/ece3.2784
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The presence of predators can impact a variety of organisms within the
ecosystem, including microorganisms. Because the effects of fish predators
and their phenotypic differences on microbial communities are poorly
studied, we tested how the presence/absence, genotype, and plasticity of
the predatory threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) influences
aquatic microbes in outdoor mesocosms. We reared lake and stream
stickleback genotypes on contrasting food resources to adulthood, and
then added them to aquatic mesocosm ecosystems to assess their impact
on the planktonic bacterial community. We also investigated if the effects
of fish persisted following the removal of adults, and the subsequent
addition of a homogenous juvenile fish population. The presence of adult
stickleback increased the number of bacterial OTUs and altered the size
structure of the microbial community, whereas their phenotype affected
bacterial community composition. Some of these effects were detectable
after adult fish were removed from the mesocosms, and after juvenile fish
were placed in the tanks, most of these effects disappeared. Our results
suggest that fish can have strong short-term, and potentially long-term,
effects on microbial communities that are partially mediated by phenotypic
variation of fish.
Item Type: |
Journal Article (Original Article) |
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Division/Institute: |
08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Ecology and Evolution (IEE) 08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Ecology and Evolution (IEE) > Aquatic Ecology |
UniBE Contributor: |
Aebischer, Thierry, Seehausen, Ole |
Subjects: |
500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology |
ISSN: |
2045-7758 |
Publisher: |
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. |
Language: |
English |
Submitter: |
Marcel Häsler |
Date Deposited: |
20 Jul 2017 11:27 |
Last Modified: |
05 Dec 2022 15:01 |
Publisher DOI: |
10.1002/ece3.2784 |
BORIS DOI: |
10.7892/boris.93526 |
URI: |
https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/93526 |
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