Abstract
Subtropical coral reefs along the coast are facing multiple pressures. Mariculture is one of the main sources of such pressure. Oyster culture has become a worldwide phenomenon in coastal ecosystems. Due to the high filtration efficiency of oysters, their culture has helped to purify some coastal waters. However, high-density oyster culture has also had negative effects on coastal ecosystems, including the loss of natural habitat, changes in hydrology, cross infection of corals with pathogenic bacteria, and changes to the structure and function of bacterioplankton communities. In this study, the effect of oyster culture on coral reefs was characterized based on variability in the structure and function of bacterioplankton communities. Using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, a comprehensive bacterioplankton reference database was constructed for coral reef habitats associated with oyster culture and subjected to different disturbance gradients. Small shifts in the surrounding coral reef environment caused by oyster culture disturbance were detected by comparing the structure and function of bacterioplankton communities with biogeochemical parameters. The measured chemical dynamics explained 71.15% of the bacterioplankton community variability between habitats. Oyster culture increased the richness and diversity of bacterioplankton communities. Species composition similarity was highest between the oyster culture area and the nearest coral reef habitat. The spatial turnover in the bacterioplankton community was characterized by less uniform community assembly patterns. The bacterioplankton function of reefs relatively far from anthropogenic disturbance differed from that of those closer to such disturbances. Our results also show that the variability in structure and function of bacterioplankton communities between oyster culture areas and coral reef areas was mainly driven by salinity and ammonium. Oyster culture can impact bacterioplankton community composition and dynamics around coral reef habitats. The results provide an important context for developing frameworks for managing ecological interactions among oyster cultures and coral reef habitats of concern.
Highlights
Coral reefs support a series of ecosystem services and goods that contribute to the production and Publisher: Inter-Research · www.int-res.comAquacult Environ Interact 13: 489–503, 2021 al. 2019, Williams & Graham 2019)
Given the importance of bacterioplankton community complexity in mediating the responses of reefs to disturbances, such as coral disease (Ceh et al 2012), understanding the factors driving such communities will be critical for the preservation of reefs under future scenarios of environmental change
The richness of bacterioplankton communities was significantly higher in the oyster aquaculture area (OS) area than in the YM and SM areas
Summary
Coral reefs support a series of ecosystem services and goods that contribute to the production and Publisher: Inter-Research · www.int-res.comAquacult Environ Interact 13: 489–503, 2021 al. 2019, Williams & Graham 2019). Environmental changes can affect all life stages, but the early stages of marine organisms are generally more sensitive to environmental stress than the adult stages (ReicheltBrushett & Harrison 1999, Styan & Rosser 2012, Guillemette et al 2018). If these early life stages are disrupted, this can have negative impacts on recruitment and affect the survival and distribution of corals (Albright & Langdon 2011). The bacterioplankton community plays an important role in coral reproduction. It has been reported to be an important component of the microbiome in the early life stages of the brooder Porites astreoides and the broadcast spawner Acropora millepora (Damjanovic et al 2020)
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