Shifts in biofilms’ composition induced by flow stagnation, sewage contamination and grazing

Abstract

Freshwaters are constantly facing ecosystem functioning alterations and loss of biodiversity driven by multiple anthropogenic and natural stressors, that by acting simultaneously create complex interactions, affecting the quantity and quality of water resources. Stream biofilms are complex communities, which are exposed to these alterations and, in addition, are naturally stressed by invertebrate grazing. Therefore, they are expected to reflect these impacts through shifts in community structure, composition and function. Here we used a mesocosm system to assess the single and interacting effect of major anthropogenic stressors acting in Mediterranean streams (i.e. flow stagnation and sewage contamination) in combination with a biological natural stressor (i.e. grazing) on the main assemblages composing biofilm (i.e. bacteria, fungi and algae) by assessing communities’ relative abundance through Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (DGGE) operational taxonomic units (OTUs). Biofilm was submitted to the three stressors, in a full-factorial design (2 flow conditions × 2 contamination conditions × 2 grazing settings) in a 5-week experiment. Molecular data showed that the combined effect of anthropogenic stressors (flow stagnation and sewage contamination) induced unequal OTUs responses on biofilm assemblages, with antagonistic effects for bacteria, synergistic for fungi and additive for algae. Sewage and grazing interaction were significant for all groups revealing a negative effect (antagonistic) on bacteria and algae diversity but positive on fungi diversity (synergistic). The same overall response pattern was also found for the triple co-occurring stressors, which increased fungi diversity while decreasing algae and bacteria. In stream ecosystems in which low flow conditions and sewage contamination prevail in the presence of natural herbivory, algae and bacterial diversity may be severely affected, while fungal diversity may be surprisingly enhanced. Consequently, shifts in the relative proportions could led to the unbalancing of ecosystem processes (e.g., photosynthesis, nutrient mineralization) defined by the microbial communities.