Seagrass- Microbial Friend or Foe?

   Seagrass meadows are hugely important ecosystems which require a delicate balance of nutrients in order to provide habitats for a multitude of organisms worldwide. Shark Bay features some of the largest meadows in the world, yet its waters are categorized as highly oligotrophic. This bay is characterized by a natural salinity and phosphate gradient which is amplified by the presence of seagrass, which acts as a natural barrier to water circulation, giving rise to different environmental conditions and therefore different microbial communities. Fraser et al. (2018) aimed to investigate the different microbes present within different conditions, as it was hypothesized that different genes which alter nutrient uptake would be up regulated depending on their position along the gradient.

   Metagenomic sequencing provided an image as to what functional and taxonomic changes were present between different microbial communities. It was observed that there were distinct shifts in both functional and taxonomic structure of communities along the saline/phosphate gradient, which also impacts seagrass activity and configuration. This information could prove essential with respect to our understanding of the interactions between seagrasses and their microbial community composition within a changing environment, a topic becoming increasingly important as our climate continues to verge toward extremes.

Fraser, M. W., Gleeson, D., Grierson, P. F., Laverock, B., & Kendrick, G. A. (2018). Metagenomic evidence of microbial community responsiveness to phosphorus and salinity gradients in seagrass sediments. Frontiers in microbiology, 9, 1703.