Dynamics of an estuarine biotic community captured in high spatio-temporal resolution using metabarcoding

Area of Science:

• Marine Biology
• Microbial Ecology
• Environmental Science

Background:

• Estuaries and coasts are vital transition zones with steep physicochemical gradients.
• These dynamic environments are crucial for ecosystem functions but difficult to study due to variability.
• Human impacts add complexity to understanding these aquatic systems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize microbial community composition and environmental parameters in the Warnow River estuary and Baltic Sea coast.
• To provide high spatio-temporal resolution data for a human-impacted temperate estuary.
• To enable investigation of microbial dynamics and biogeochemical responses to environmental change.

Main Methods:

• Collected samples over one year from fifteen sites along a ~30 km transect.
• Generated 16S and 18S rRNA amplicon sequencing data for microbial community analysis.
• Measured environmental parameters including temperature, salinity, and nutrient concentrations using flow cytometry and chemical analysis.

Main Results:

• Generated a comprehensive dataset of microbial communities and environmental factors across a salinity gradient.
• Resolved short-term dynamics and fine-scale spatial variations in microbial communities.
• Captured microbial responses to environmental changes within the estuary.

Conclusions:

• The dataset offers a valuable resource for studying microbial processes in complex, human-impacted aquatic systems.
• Provides insights into microbial community turnover and biogeochemical cycling.
• Facilitates improved modeling of estuarine and coastal microbial ecosystems.