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Fish predation on corals promotes the dispersal of coral symbionts
- Source :
- Animal Microbiome, Vol 3, Iss 1, Pp 1-12 (2021), Animal Microbiome
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- BMC, 2021.
-
Abstract
- Background The microbiomes of foundation (habitat-forming) species such as corals and sponges underpin the biodiversity, productivity, and stability of ecosystems. Consumers shape communities of foundation species through trophic interactions, but the role of consumers in dispersing the microbiomes of such species is rarely examined. For example, stony corals rely on a nutritional symbiosis with single-celled endosymbiotic dinoflagellates (family Symbiodiniaceae) to construct reefs. Most corals acquire Symbiodiniaceae from the environment, but the processes that make Symbiodiniaceae available for uptake are not resolved. Here, we provide the first comprehensive, reef-scale demonstration that predation by diverse coral-eating (corallivorous) fish species promotes the dispersal of Symbiodiniaceae, based on symbiont cell densities and community compositions from the feces of four obligate corallivores, three facultative corallivores, two grazer/detritivores as well as samples of reef sediment and water. Results Obligate corallivore feces are environmental hotspots of Symbiodiniaceae cells: live symbiont cell concentrations in such feces are 5–7 orders of magnitude higher than sediment and water environmental reservoirs. Symbiodiniaceae community compositions in the feces of obligate corallivores are similar to those in two locally abundant coral genera (Pocillopora and Porites), but differ from Symbiodiniaceae communities in the feces of facultative corallivores and grazer/detritivores as well as sediment and water. Combining our data on live Symbiodiniaceae cell densities in feces with in situ observations of fish, we estimate that some obligate corallivorous fish species release over 100 million Symbiodiniaceae cells per 100 m2 of reef per day. Released corallivore feces came in direct contact with coral colonies in the fore reef zone following 91% of observed egestion events, providing a potential mechanism for the transfer of live Symbiodiniaceae cells among coral colonies. Conclusions Taken together, our findings show that fish predation on corals may support the maintenance of coral cover on reefs in an unexpected way: through the dispersal of beneficial coral symbionts in corallivore feces. Few studies examine the processes that make symbionts available to foundation species, or how environmental reservoirs of such symbionts are replenished. This work sets the stage for parallel studies of consumer-mediated microbiome dispersal and assembly in other sessile, habitat-forming species.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine
Coral reefs
Filefish
Water column
Coral
Butterflyfish
Porites
Short Report
lcsh:QR1-502
Predation
Zoology
Biology
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
Corallivore
lcsh:Microbiology
03 medical and health sciences
Feces
Symbiodiniaceae
Surgeonfish
geography
geography.geographical_feature_category
lcsh:Veterinary medicine
Obligate
Ecology
Dinoflagellate
General Medicine
Coral reef
Dispersal
biology.organism_classification
Parrotfish
030104 developmental biology
Foundation species
Biological dispersal
Fish
lcsh:SF600-1100
Sediment
Microbiome
Pocillopora
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 25244671
- Volume :
- 3
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Animal Microbiome
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....58df19485efc45c618733e2907fcc4cd