GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Düsternbrooker Weg 20, 24105, Kiel, Germany.
MARUM-Center for Marine Environmental Sciences and Department of Geosciences, University of Bremen, 28359, Bremen, Germany.
Nat Commun. 2022 Sep 2;13(1):5160. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-32684-4.
In the deep ocean symbioses between microbes and invertebrates are emerging as key drivers of ecosystem health and services. We present a large-scale analysis of microbial diversity in deep-sea sponges (Porifera) from scales of sponge individuals to ocean basins, covering 52 locations, 1077 host individuals translating into 169 sponge species (including understudied glass sponges), and 469 reference samples, collected anew during 21 ship-based expeditions. We demonstrate the impacts of the sponge microbial abundance status, geographic distance, sponge phylogeny, and the physical-biogeochemical environment as drivers of microbiome composition, in descending order of relevance. Our study further discloses that fundamental concepts of sponge microbiology apply robustly to sponges from the deep-sea across distances of >10,000 km. Deep-sea sponge microbiomes are less complex, yet more heterogeneous, than their shallow-water counterparts. Our analysis underscores the uniqueness of each deep-sea sponge ground based on which we provide critical knowledge for conservation of these vulnerable ecosystems.
在深海中，微生物和无脊椎动物之间的共生关系正成为生态系统健康和服务的关键驱动因素。我们对深海海绵（多孔动物门）的微生物多样性进行了大规模分析，范围从海绵个体到海洋盆地，涵盖了 52 个地点、1077 个宿主个体，转化为 169 种海绵物种（包括研究较少的玻璃海绵）和 469 个参考样本，这些样本都是在 21 次基于船舶的考察中新采集的。我们证明了海绵微生物丰度状态、地理距离、海绵系统发育以及物理生物地球化学环境作为微生物组组成的驱动因素的影响，其相关性依次递减。我们的研究进一步揭示了海绵微生物学的基本概念在跨越 10000 多公里距离的深海海绵中稳健地适用。深海海绵微生物组的复杂性较低，但异质性更高。我们的分析强调了每个深海海绵的独特性，这为保护这些脆弱的生态系统提供了关键知识。
