Predicting climate-change impacts on the global glacier-fed stream microbiome

The shrinkage of glaciers and the vanishing of glacier-fed streams (GFSs) are emblematic of climate change. However, forecasts of how GFS microbiome structure and function will change under projected climate change scenarios are lacking. Combining 2,333 prokaryotic metagenome-assembled genomes with climatic, glaciological, and environmental data collected by the Vanishing Glaciers project from 164 GFSs draining Earth's major mountain ranges, we here predict the future of the GFS microbiome until the end of the century under various climate change scenarios. Our model framework is rooted in a space-for-time substitution design and leverages statistical learning approaches. We predict that declining environmental selection promotes primary production in GFSs, stimulating both bacterial biomass and biodiversity. Concomitantly, predictions suggest that the phylogenetic structure of the GFS microbiome will change and entire bacterial clades are at risk. Furthermore, genomic projections reveal that microbiome functions will shift, with intensified solar energy acquisition pathways, heterotrophy and algal-bacterial interactions. Altogether, we project a 'greener' future of the world's GFSs accompanied by a loss of clades that have adapted to environmental harshness, with consequences for ecosystem functioning.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nature Communications
Published
2025-02-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-56426-4
Citations
9
Primary Topic
Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
15.45

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article

Predicting climate-change impacts on the global glacier-fed stream microbiome

Grégoire Michoud, Tyler J. Kohler, Stilianos Fodelianakis, Tom J. Battin et al.
9 citations
Nature Communications
Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
15.45
article

Predicting climate-change impacts on the global glacier-fed stream microbiome

Grégoire Michoud, Tyler J. Kohler, Stilianos Fodelianakis, Tom J. Battin, Massimo Bourquin, Matthias Huss, Michael Styllas, Hannes Peter, Vincent De Staercke, Andrew L. Robison, Leïla Ezzat, Matteo Tolosano, Susheel Bhanu Busi, Martina Schön, Aileen U. Geers
article en
9 citations

Abstract

The shrinkage of glaciers and the vanishing of glacier-fed streams (GFSs) are emblematic of climate change. However, forecasts of how GFS microbiome structure and function will change under projected climate change scenarios are lacking. Combining 2,333 prokaryotic metagenome-assembled genomes with climatic, glaciological, and environmental data collected by the Vanishing Glaciers project from 164 GFSs draining Earth's major mountain ranges, we here predict the future of the GFS microbiome until the end of the century under various climate change scenarios. Our model framework is rooted in a space-for-time substitution design and leverages statistical learning approaches. We predict that declining environmental selection promotes primary production in GFSs, stimulating both bacterial biomass and biodiversity. Concomitantly, predictions suggest that the phylogenetic structure of the GFS microbiome will change and entire bacterial clades are at risk. Furthermore, genomic projections reveal that microbiome functions will shift, with intensified solar energy acquisition pathways, heterotrophy and algal-bacterial interactions. Altogether, we project a 'greener' future of the world's GFSs accompanied by a loss of clades that have adapted to environmental harshness, with consequences for ecosystem functioning.

Nature CommunicationsVol. 16(1)
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Ifremer (FR), University of Fribourg (CH), Université de Montpellier (FR), Charles University (CZ), Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (CH), ETH Zurich (CH), UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (GB), Marine Biodiversity Exploitation and Conservation (FR), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (FR), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH)
National Science Foundation, Univerzita Karlova v Praze, Université du Luxembourg, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, NOMIS Stiftung
Climate action
Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
15.45
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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