composition influences the pathway but not the outcome of the metabolic response of bacterioplankton to resource shifts构成影响的途径而不是结果的代谢反应bacterioplankton资源转变.pdfVIP

Composition Influences the Pathway but not the Outcome of the Metabolic Response of Bacterioplankton to Resource Shifts ´ ˆ Jerome Comte*, Paul A. del Giorgio ´ ´ ´ ` ´ ´ ´ Groupe de Recherche Interuniversitaire en Limnologie (GRIL), Departement des sciences biologiques, Universite du Quebec a Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada Abstract Bacterioplankton community metabolism is central to the functioning of aquatic ecosystems, and strongly reactive to changes in the environment, yet the processes underlying this response remain unclear. Here we explore the role that community composition plays in shaping the bacterial metabolic response to resource gradients that occur along aquatic ´ ecotones in a complex watershed in Quebec. Our results show that the response is mediated by complex shifts in community structure, and structural equation analysis confirmed two main pathways, one involving adjustments in the level of activity of existing phylotypes, and the other the replacement of the dominant phylotypes. These contrasting response pathways were not determined by the type or the intensity of the gradients involved, as we had hypothesized, but rather it would appear that some compositional configurations may be intrinsically more plastic than others. Our results suggest that community composition determines this overall level of community plasticity, but that composition itself may be driven by factors independent of the environmental gradients themselves, such that the response of bacterial communities to a given type of gradient may alternate between the adjustment and replacement pathways. We conclude that