Rapid and stable microbial community assembly in the headwaters of third-order stream.

We examined microbial community composition of a first- through third-order stream using fine-scale temporal and spatial regimes. Our results show that the bacterioplankton community develops rapidly and predictably from the headwater population with increasing total stream length. Along the length of the stream, the microbial community exhibits substantial diversity loss and enriches repeatedly for select taxa across days and years, although the relative abundances of individual taxa vary over time and space. This repeated enrichment of a stable stream community likely contributes to the stability and flexibility of downstream communities. PMID: 30952660 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Applied and Environmental Microbiology - Category: Microbiology Authors: Tags: Appl Environ Microbiol Source Type: research