Dormancy dampens the microbial distance–decay relationship
Abstract
Much of Earth's biodiversity has the capacity to engage in dormancy, a reversible state of reduced metabolic activity. By increasing resilience to unfavourable conditions, dormancy leads to the accumulation of ‘seed banks’. These reservoirs of genetic and phenotypic diversity should diminish the strength of environmental filtering and increase rates of dispersal. Although prevalent among single-celled organisms, evidence that dormancy influences patterns of microbial biogeography is lacking. We constructed geographical and environmental distance–decay relationships (DDRs) for the total (DNA) and active (RNA) portions of bacterial communities in a regional-scale 16S rRNA survey of forested ponds in Indiana, USA. As predicted, total communities harboured greater diversity and exhibited weaker DDRs than active communities. These observations were robust to random resampling and different community metrics. To evaluate the processes underlying the biogeographic patterns, we developed a platform of mechanistic models that used the geographical coordinates and environmental characteristics of our study system. Based on more than 10 6 simulations, our models approximated the empirical DDRs when there was strong environmental filtering along with the presence of long-lived seed banks. By contrast, the inclusion of dispersal generally decreased model performance. Together, our findings support recent theoretical predictions that seed banks can influence the biogeographic patterns of microbial communities.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Mar 23, 2020
- Source ID
- 10.1098/rstb.2019.0243
Entities
People
- Jay T. Lennon
- K. J. Locey
- Mario E Muscarella
- Megan Larsen
- Sarah R. Bray
- Stuart E. Jones
Organizations
- Army Research Office
- Indiana University
- National Science Foundation
- Transylvania University
- University of Notre Dame