Abstract
Increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) change ocean chemistry, as dissolved CO2 leads to a reduction in the seawater pH. Many marine taxa have been shown to be affected by ocean acidification, while information on marine fungi is lacking. Here, we analyze the effect of pH on mycoplankton communities. The pH of microcosms was adjusted to a value mimicking the predicted ocean acidification in the near future. Fungal communities were analyzed using a double-marker gene approach, allowing a more detailed analysis of their response using 454 pyrosequencing. Mycoplankton communities in microcosms with in situ and adjusted water pH values differed significantly in terms of structure and diversity. The differences were mainly based on abundance shifts among the dominant taxa rather than the exclusion of fungal groups. A sensitivity to lower pH values was reported for several groups across the fungal kingdom and was not phylogenetically conserved. Some of the fungal species that dominated the communities of microcosms with a lower pH were known pathogenic fungi. With the increasing awareness of the significant role fungi play in marine systems, including performing a diverse range of symbiotic activities, our results highlight the importance of including fungi in further research projects studying and modeling biotic responses to the predicted ocean acidification.
Highlights
Oceans cover approximately 72% of the Earth’s surface and are home to an uncountable number of organisms
High-resolution studies on marine fungal communities and their responses to ocean acidification are currently lacking, fungi can be affected by changes in pH in diverse ways; one example is the uptake of nutrients and organic compounds driven by the electrochemical gradient of H+ ions across the plasma membrane (Bowman & Bowman 1986)
We aimed to identify which parameters of the communities change, how they change, whether specific fungal species benefit from changes in pH, and whether the observed sensitivity of fungi toward lower pH values is cladespecific
Summary
Oceans cover approximately 72% of the Earth’s surface and are home to an uncountable number of organisms. The use of next-generation sequencing (NGS) techniques has shed some light on fungal diversity (Richards et al 2015, Rämä et al 2016, Taylor & Cunliffe 2016) and functioning (Gutiérrez et al 2011, Orsi et al 2013, 2015). The ITS is not the best marker for all fungal groups, and many environmental sequences can often only be classified to the phylum or kingdom level (Nilsson et al 2016). High-resolution studies on marine fungal communities and their responses to ocean acidification are currently lacking, fungi can be affected by changes in pH in diverse ways; one example is the uptake of nutrients and organic compounds driven by the electrochemical gradient of H+ ions across the plasma membrane (Bowman & Bowman 1986). A further but indirect effect is on the availability and accessibility of substrates, such as the range and size of dissolved and particulate organic matter (Verdugo et al 2004)
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