Microbial biogeography of 925 geothermal springs in New Zealand
Citation
MGnify (2020). Microbial biogeography of 925 geothermal springs in New Zealand. Sampling event dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/m7dx33 accessed via GBIF.org on 2024-09-01.Description
Geothermal springs are model ecosystems to investigate microbial biogeography as they represent discrete, relatively homogenous habitats, are distributed across multiple geographical scales, span broad geochemical gradients, and have reduced metazoan interactions. Here, we report the largest known consolidated study of geothermal ecosystems to determine factors that influence biogeographical patterns. We measured bacterial and archaeal community composition, 46 physicochemical parameters, and metadata from 925 geothermal springs across New Zealand (13.9100.6 C and pH <19.7). We determined that diversity is primarily influenced by pH at temperatures <70 C; with temperature only having a significant effect for values >70 C. Further, community dissimilarity increases with geographic distance, with niche selection driving assembly at a localised scale. Surprisingly, two genera (Venenivibrio and Acidithiobacillus) dominated in both average relative abundance (11.2% and 11.1%, respectively) and prevalence (74.2% and 62.9%, respectively). These findings provide an unprecedented insight into ecological behaviour in geothermal springs, and a foundation to improve the characterisation of microbial biogeographical processes.Sampling Description
Sampling
Geothermal springs are model ecosystems to investigate microbial biogeography as they represent discrete, relatively homogenous habitats, are distributed across multiple geographical scales, span broad geochemical gradients, and have reduced metazoan interactions. Here, we report the largest known consolidated study of geothermal ecosystems to determine factors that influence biogeographical patterns. We measured bacterial and archaeal community composition, 46 physicochemical parameters, and metadata from 925 geothermal springs across New Zealand (13.9100.6 C and pH <19.7). We determined that diversity is primarily influenced by pH at temperatures <70 C; with temperature only having a significant effect for values >70 C. Further, community dissimilarity increases with geographic distance, with niche selection driving assembly at a localised scale. Surprisingly, two genera (Venenivibrio and Acidithiobacillus) dominated in both average relative abundance (11.2% and 11.1%, respectively) and prevalence (74.2% and 62.9%, respectively). These findings provide an unprecedented insight into ecological behaviour in geothermal springs, and a foundation to improve the characterisation of microbial biogeographical processes.Method steps
- Pipeline used: https://www.ebi.ac.uk/metagenomics/pipelines/4.1
Taxonomic Coverages
Geographic Coverages
Bibliographic Citations
- Power JF, Carere CR, Lee CK, Wakerley GLJ, Evans DW, Button M, White D, Climo MD, Hinze AM, Morgan XC, McDonald IR, Cary SC, Stott MB. 2018. Microbial biogeography of 925 geothermal springs in New Zealand. Nat Commun vol. 9 - DOI:10.1038/s41467-018-05020-y
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