Quantifying the contribution of microbial immigration in engineered water systems

Area of Science:

• Microbial ecology
• Environmental microbiology
• Community assembly

Background:

• Microbial immigration shapes ecosystems, but its quantitative impact on diversity and function is hard to measure.
• Existing methods focus on abundance, neglecting immigrant activity post-arrival.
• This limits understanding of how new microbes contribute to ecosystem processes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a method for quantitatively assessing the contribution of microbial immigrants to downstream community function.
• To differentiate active, function-contributing immigrants from inactive ones.
• To improve the accuracy of identifying environmental factors influencing microbial communities.

Main Methods:

• Coupling a mass balance model with high-throughput DNA sequencing (ecogenomics-based mass balance).
• Calculating net growth rates of individual microbial immigrants.
• Partitioning microbial communities into active and inactive populations.

Main Results:

• The ecogenomics-based mass balance approach quantifies immigrant contributions to downstream community function.
• It distinguishes active immigrants, crucial for ecosystem processes, from inactive ones.
• Focusing on active populations enhances the identification of key environmental drivers.

Conclusions:

• Ecogenomics-based mass balance offers a quantitative method to assess microbial immigration impacts.
• This approach advances our understanding of microbial community assembly and function.
• It provides a foundation for more accurate ecological modeling and environmental management.