Whale-Associated Microbial Communities Remain Remarkably Stable despite Massive Water Community Disruption in a Managed Artificial Marine Environment

Abstract

Highly managed and built environments such as zoos and aquaria provide a rich source of standardized environmental monitoring data over periods of years to decades. A fifty percent water change in an 11.4-million-liter indoor artificial sea water system housing three species of marine mammals was conducted over a two-month period. Using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, the microbial community structure of the system water and three host sites (feces, skin, and exhaled breath “chuff”) of whales housed in the system were characterized. Diversity measures confirmed massive disruption to the water community structure as an expected result of the water change. Host site-associated communities remained remarkably stable. Improved understanding of host microbial community dynamics in response to environmental system perturbations allows for sound management decisions toward optimizing conditions for resident animals.