ArticleEnvironmental microbiome2020
Reducing the arbitrary: fuzzy detection of microbial ecotones and ecosystems - focus on the pelagic environment.
Article in Environmental microbiome, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Ecological Modules Link Soil Aggregate Stability, Chemical Properties and Fungal Communities Under Plant Species-Based Revegetation.Environmental microbiology reports · 2025Article
- Marine phytoplankton impose strong selective pressures onISME communications · 2025Article
- Ecological drivers switch from bottom-up to top-down during model microbial community successions.The ISME journal · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundOne of the central objectives of microbial ecology is to study the distribution of microbial communities and their association with their environments. Biogeographical studies have partitioned the oceans into provinces and regions, but the identification of their boundaries remains challenging, hindering our ability to study transition zones (i.e. ecotones) and microbial ecosystem heterogeneity. Fuzzy clustering is a promising method to do so, as it creates overlapping sets of clusters. The outputs of these analyses thus appear both structured (into clusters) and gradual (due to the overlaps), which aligns with the inherent continuity of the pelagic environment, and solves the issue of defining ecosystem boundaries.
resultsWe show the suitability of applying fuzzy clustering to address the patchiness of microbial ecosystems, integrating environmental (Sea Surface Temperature, Salinity) and bacterioplankton data (Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs) based on 16S rRNA gene) collected during six cruises over 1.5 years from the subtropical frontal zone off New Zealand. The technique was able to precisely identify ecological heterogeneity, distinguishing both the patches and the transitions between them. In particular we show that the subtropical front is a distinct, albeit transient, microbial ecosystem. Each water mass harboured a specific microbial community, and the characteristics of their ecotones matched the characteristics of the environmental transitions, highlighting that environmental mixing lead to community mixing. Further explorations into the OTU community compositions revealed that, although only a small proportion of the OTUs explained community variance, their associations with given water mass were consistent through time.
conclusionWe demonstrate recurrent associations between microbial communities and dynamic oceanic features. Fuzzy clusters can be applied to any ecosystem (terrestrial, human, marine, etc) to solve uncertainties regarding the position of microbial ecological boundaries and to refine the relation between the distribution of microorganisms and their environment.
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Registered trials
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