Microbes Under Climate Refugia: Equable Subcommunity Rank Dynamics in Large-River Deltaic Estuaries.

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Microbiology
• Environmental Science

Background:

• Climate refugia are crucial for sheltering species, but their role in microbial communities is often overlooked due to high species diversity.
• Large-river deltaic estuaries (LDEs) are recognized as potential hotspots for climate refugia.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate microbial community structures within LDEs.
• To assess the temporal dynamics and resilience of microbial subcommunities in these potential refugia.
• To compare microbial community patterns with macroecological principles.

Main Methods:

• Utilized latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) to categorize microbial communities into distinct subcommunities.
• Conducted a 2-year survey of LDEs.
• Employed continuous time dynamic models to establish rank hierarchies and monitor temporal changes.

Main Results:

• LDEs harbor distinct microbial community structures, mirroring macroecological patterns.
• Microbial subcommunity abundance distributions demonstrated resilience against environmental perturbations, persisting throughout the annual cycle.
• Rank abundance curves showed frequent evenness fluctuations, while rank-order shifts influenced subsequent dynamics.

Conclusions:

• The microbial subcommunity rank structure in LDEs is persistent, aligning with established species abundance distribution patterns.
• Stable functioning of microbial rank systems is fundamental to ecosystem refugial capacity.
• Microbial refugia warrant equal consideration alongside macroorganismal refugia for conservation efforts.