Mycoplanktonic Community Structure and Their Roles in Monitoring Environmental Changes in a Subtropical Estuary in the Beibu Gulf

Abstract

Mycoplankton are an important component of marine ecosystems and play a key role in material cycling and energy flow in marine ecosystems. In this study, high-throughput sequencing of the 18S rDNA gene was employed to investigate the community structure of mycoplankton during summer and winter and their response to environmental changes in the Dafengjiang River estuary in the Beibu Gulf, Guangxi. The mycoplanktonic community was generally dominated by Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, and Cryptomycota. However, there were significant seasonal differences in the α-diversity of the mycoplanktonic community (p < 0.05). Random forest modeling also revealed that Paramicrosporidium, Parengyodontium, Arthrinium, Paramycosphaerella, Pestalotia, and Talaromyces were the most effective bioindicators of environmental changes. Spearman’s correlation analysis and distance-based redundancy analysis suggested that the trophic status, chemical oxygen demand, dissolved oxygen, and salinity were the key environmental factors regulating the mycoplanktonic community structure. Variation partitioning analysis also found that nutrient levels were the main driver of the β-diversity of the mycoplanktonic community, showing a greater effect than the water quality parameters. In conclusion, this study revealed the mycoplanktonic community structure and its key drivers in the Dafengjiang River estuary, thus providing a theoretical reference for ecological environmental monitoring and resource management in the Beibu Gulf.

Marine Fungal Diversity and Dynamics in the Gulf of Trieste (Northern Adriatic Sea)

“…Overall, the fungal community detected at the LTER station C1 was in line with results from recent DNA metabarcoding surveys in coastal and open waters [ 7 , 15 , 17 , 29 , 38 , 39 ]. In fact, we detected a prevalence of Dikaryotic fungi, Ascomycota, and, in minor proportion, Basidiomycota, in surface and bottom samples (Fig.…”

“…2 ) and part of the core mycobiome. P. album is a filamentous, chemoorganotrophic species often detected in seawater [ 15 , 39 ]. It has also been found in sediments and associated with sponges, corals, and crustaceans and regarded as a potential pathogen of marine animals [ 44 ]; it is also considered an emerging opportunistic human pathogen due to its proteolytic and keratinolytic activities [ 45 ].…”