Temperature-Related Short-Term Succession Events of Bacterial Phylotypes in Potter Cove, Antarctica

• Published in: Genes
• Main Authors: Doris Ilicic, Danny Ionescu, Jason Woodhouse, Hans-Peter Grossart
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2023
• Subjects: bacterioplankton; temperature; climate change; intraspecific variation; biogeography; bacterial community composition; Genetics; QH426-470; Antarctic; Antarctic Ocean; Potter Cove; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/genes14051051; https://doaj.org/article/e7918d7361c2460786a242b01a1c587a

In recent years, our understanding of the roles of bacterial communities in the Antarctic Ocean has substantially improved. It became evident that Antarctic marine bacteria are metabolically versatile, and even closely related strains may differ in their functionality and, therefore, affect the ecosystem differently. Nevertheless, most studies have been focused on entire bacterial communities, with little attention given to individual taxonomic groups. Antarctic waters are strongly influenced by climate change; thus, it is crucial to understand how changes in environmental conditions, such as changes in water temperature and salinity fluctuations, affect bacterial species in this important area. In this study, we show that an increase in water temperature of 1 °C was enough to alter bacterial communities on a short-term temporal scale. We further show the high intraspecific diversity of Antarctic bacteria and, subsequently, rapid intra-species succession events most likely driven by various temperature-adapted phylotypes. Our results reveal pronounced changes in microbial communities in the Antarctic Ocean driven by a single strong temperature anomaly. This suggests that long-term warming may have profound effects on bacterial community composition and presumably functionality in light of continuous and future climate change.