Marine microbial community diversity and responses to environmental change
Heynderickx, H.C.D. (2022). Marine microbial community diversity and responses to environmental change. PhD Thesis. University of Otago: Dunedin. 194 pp.
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Document type: Dissertation
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| Keywords |
Aquatic communities > Plankton > Phytoplankton
Aquatic sciences > Marine sciences > Ecology > Marine ecology
Bacteria
Biofilms
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| Author keywords |
Microbial-communities; Next-generation-sequencing; Ocean-acidification; Marine-heatwave |
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- Heynderickx, H.C.D., more
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| Abstract |
The ocean is the largest biome on Earth and hosts an immense diversity of marine microorganisms. These include prokaryotes (bacteria and archaea), protists, fungi, viruses and microzooplankton. They form the base of marine food webs and sustain higher trophic levels through their critical role in the ocean carbon cycle and many other biogeochemical processes. Microorganisms are found across a large variety of ecosystems and show both global and local biogeographical distribution patterns. Different types of microbial organisation, e.g. free-living and surface-attached, led to a multifarious lifestyle. Over time, the specialized nature of both environmental lifestyles resulted in the development of unique communities with different capabilities. In this thesis both lifestyles were studied, and a further distinction between biotic and abiotic surface associated communities was made. Climate change related stressors in the ocean have been linked to multiple changes that threaten the marine environment, such as increased sea surface temperature, ocean acidification, and deoxygenation. These changes have already impacted the structure, composition, and function of microorganism communities in several marine habitats. However, due to the large diversity that exists within the prokaryotic and eukaryotic groups, a lot is still unknown. In order to detect and quantify short-term and long-term responses to environmental change, baseline studies are needed that show the natural spatial and temporal variability within and between communities. This was the main objective in this thesis, to characterize microbial communities in different unique ecosystems by applying 16S and 18S amplicon sequencing and thereby providing a framework for future studies on climate change and future work on interspecies and interkingdom interactions. |
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