Phycospheric bacterial community structure and function succession during the typical harmful macroalgal blooms

Abstract

Based on the diversity and importance of phycospheric microorganisms as well as their complex interaction with algae, their ecological correlation with algal bloom events has become a research topic of great interest that remains unclear in the natural dynamic process of harmful macroalgal blooms (HMBs). The world’s largest green tides caused by macroalgae Ulva prolifera have occurred in the Yellow Sea for 16 consecutive years, and seriously affected the coastal ecosystem. Here, we monitored the spatiotemporal dynamics of the phycospheric bacterial community during the U. prolifera green tide bloom. The 73-day continuous field survey covered the whole process of initial invasion until the extinction of the green tide. The phycospheric bacterial community has a higher richness than the control seawater bacteria; in addition, it has more enriched taxa with organic nutrition preference and environmental pressure adaption, such as Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, and Desulfobacterota. The same differences in populations and functional profiles were observed among the epiphytic bacterial and phycospheric seawater bacterial communities, which may be driven by the spatial heterogeneity of biogenic elements (e.g., organic nutrients and oxygen) among the habitats. Significant succession occurred in both the epiphytic bacterial and phycospheric seawater bacterial communities; their diversity and richness exhibited significant heterogeneity variation patterns, and their community structure became more similar in late phases. Our study revealed that macroalgal phycospheric microbial communities have a highly complex and dynamic composition and variable ecological functions, which indicate that phycospheric microorganisms are closely related to the fate of HMBs and may have the profound effect coastal biogeochemical cycles.