Defining marine bacterioplankton community assembly rules by contrasting the importance of environmental determinants and biotic interactions

Bacterioplankton communities govern marine productivity and biogeochemical cycling, yet drivers of bacterioplankton assembly remain unclear. Here, we contrast the relative contribution of deterministic processes (environmental factors and biotic interactions) in driving temporal dynamics of bacterioplankton diversity at three different oceanographic time series locations, spanning 15 of latitude, which are each characterized by different environmental conditions and varying degrees of seasonality. Monthly surface samples (5.5 years) were analysed using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. The high- and mid-latitude sites of Maria Island and Port Hacking were characterized by high and intermediate levels of environmental heterogeneity, respectively, with both alpha diversity (72%; 24% of total variation) and beta diversity (32%; 30%) patterns within bacterioplankton assemblages explained by day length, ammonium, and mixed layer depth. In contrast, North Stradbroke Island, a sub-tropical location where environmental conditions are less variable, interspecific interactions were of increased importance in structuring bacterioplankton diversity (alpha: 33%; beta: 26%) with environment only contributing 11% and 13% to predicting diversity, respectively. Our results demonstrate that bacterioplankton diversity is the result of both deterministic environmental and biotic processes and that the importance of these different deterministic processes varies, potential in response to environmental heterogeneity.

Automated summary

This study investigates the drivers of bacterioplankton assembly and finds that both environmental factors and biotic interactions are important in shaping bacterioplankton diversity. The importance of these factors varies depending on the environmental heterogeneity of the location, with environmental factors playing a larger role in more variable environments and biotic interactions being more important in stable environments.