Network analysis of 16S rRNA sequences suggests microbial keystone taxa contribute to marine N2O cycling

Abstract

The mechanisms by which large-scale microbial community function emerges from complex ecological interactions between individual taxa and functional groups remain obscure. We leveraged network analyses of 16S rRNA amplicon sequences obtained over a seven-month timeseries in seasonally anoxic Saanich Inlet (Vancouver Island, Canada) to investigate relationships between microbial community structure and water column N2O cycling. Taxa separately broadly into three discrete subnetworks with contrasting environmental distributions. Oxycline subnetworks were structured around keystone aerobic heterotrophs that correlated with nitrification rates and N2O supersaturations, linking N2O production and accumulation to taxa involved in organic matter remineralization. Keystone taxa implicated in anaerobic carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur cycling in anoxic environments clustered together in a low-oxygen subnetwork that correlated positively with nitrification N2O yields and N2O production from denitrification. Close coupling between N2O producers and consumers in the anoxic basin is indicated by strong correlations between the low-oxygen subnetwork, PICRUSt2-predicted nitrous oxide reductase (nosZ) gene abundances, and N2O undersaturation. This study implicates keystone taxa affiliated with common ODZ groups as a potential control on water column N2O cycling and provides a theoretical basis for further investigations into marine microbial interaction networks.