Gene content of seawater microbes is a strong predictor of water chemistry across the Great Barrier Reef
This study reveals that functional information in reef-associated seawater microbes more robustly associates with physico-chemical variables than taxonomic data, highlighting the importance of incorporating microbial function in reef monitoring initiatives. Our integrative approach to mine for stable seawater microbial biomarkers can be expanded to include additional continuous metrics of reef health (e.g., benthic cover of corals and macroalgae, fish counts/biomass) and may be applicable to other large-scale reef metagenomics datasets beyond the GBR. Video Abstract.
Authors
- Marko Terzin
- Renee K. Gruber (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8788-6910)
- Steven J. Robbins (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4592-084X)
- David G. Bourne (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1492-8710)
- Pedro R. Frade (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4010-255X)
- Yun Kit Yeoh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0241-6117)
- Nicole S. Webster (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4753-5278)
- Sara C. Bell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1327-0360)
- Patrick W. Laffy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6754-1691)
- Kim‐Anh Lê Cao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3923-1116)
Institutions
- Natural History Museum Vienna (AT)
- University of Tasmania (AU)
- Australian Institute of Marine Science (AU)
- The University of Queensland (AU)
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- AIMS@JCU (AU)
- James Cook University (AU)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Microbiome
- Published
- 2025-01-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-024-01972-0
- Citations
- 8
- Primary Topic
- Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 13.73
Funders
- Medical Research Council
- National Health and Medical Research Council