Seasonal and environmental factors contribute to the variation in the gut microbiome: a large-scale study of a small bird

Abstract

ABSTRACTEnvironmental variation can shape the gut microbiome, but majority of studies use captive-bred species, while data on large-scale variation in the gut microbiome and the associated environmental factors is lacking. Furthermore, previous studies have limited taxonomical coverage, and for example knowledge about avian gut microbiomes is still scarce. We investigated large-scale environmental variation in the gut microbiome of wild adult great tits across the species’ European distribution range. Our results show that gut microbiome diversity is higher during winter and that there are compositional differences between winter and summer gut microbiomes. During winter, individuals inhabiting mixed forest habitat show higher gut microbiome diversity, whereas there was no similar association during summer. Also, temperature was found to be a small contributor to compositional differences in the gut microbiome. We did not find significant differences in the gut microbiome among populations, nor any association between latitude, rainfall, and the gut microbiome. The results suggest that there is a seasonal change in wild avian gut microbiomes, but that there are still many unknown factors that shape the gut microbiome of wild bird populations.