Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Ecosystems and Environment Research Program, University of Helsinki, Viikinkaari 1, Helsinki FI-00790, Finland.
Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS), Ylopistonkatu 3, Helsinki FI-00014, Finland.
FEMS Microbiol Ecol. 2019 Jan 1;95(1). doi: 10.1093/femsec/fiy226.
Metabarcoding is a method that combines high-throughput DNA sequencing and DNA-based identification. Previously, this method has been successfully used to target spatial variation of eukaryote communities in marine sediments, however, the temporal changes in these communities remain understudied. Here, we follow the temporal changes of the eukaryote communities in Baltic Sea surface sediments collected from two coastal localities during three seasons of two consecutive years. Our study reveals that the structure of the sediment eukaryotic ecosystem was primarily driven by annual and seasonal changes in prevailing environmental conditions, whereas spatial variation was a less significant factor in explaining the variance in eukaryotic communities over time. Therefore, our data suggests that shifts in regional climate regime or large-scale changes in the environment are the overdriving factors in shaping the coastal eukaryotic sediment ecosystems rather than small-scale changes in local environmental conditions or heterogeneity in ecosystem structure. More studies targeting temporal changes are needed to further understand the long-term trends in ecosystem stability and response to climate change. Furthermore, this work contributes to the recent efforts in developing metabarcoding applications for environmental biomonitoring, proving a comprehensive option for traditional monitoring approaches.
代谢条形码技术是一种将高通量 DNA 测序和基于 DNA 的鉴定相结合的方法。此前，该方法已成功用于研究海洋沉积物中真核生物群落的空间变化，但这些群落的时间变化仍研究不足。在这里，我们在两年的两个连续季节中，从两个沿海地区采集的波罗的海表层沉积物中，跟踪真核生物群落的时间变化。我们的研究表明，沉积真核生物生态系统的结构主要受流行环境条件的年际和季节性变化驱动，而空间变化是解释真核生物群落随时间变化的方差的一个不太重要的因素。因此，我们的数据表明，区域气候制度的转变或环境的大规模变化是塑造沿海真核沉积物生态系统的驱动因素，而不是局部环境条件的小尺度变化或生态系统结构的异质性。需要更多针对时间变化的研究来进一步了解生态系统稳定性的长期趋势和对气候变化的响应。此外，这项工作为环境生物监测中代谢条形码应用的最新发展做出了贡献，为传统监测方法提供了一种全面的选择。
