On a Reef Far, Far Away: Anthropogenic Impacts Following Extreme Storms Affect Sponge Health and Bacterial Communities

Shore, Amanda; Sims, J.; Grimes, Michael; Howe‐Kerr, Lauren I.; Grupstra, Carsten G. B.; Doyle, Shawn M.; Stadler, Lauren B.; Sylvan, Jason B.; Shamberger, Kathryn E. F.; Davies, Sarah W.; Santiago-Vasquez, Lory Z; Correa, Adrienne M. S.

doi:10.1101/2020.04.27.064568

Cited by 8 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 91 publications

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“…High E. coli MPNs for samples collected immediately after HH, suggests that floodwaters were contaminated with fecal matter. These elevated MPNs agree with previous reports for Bayous within the Galveston Bay system [27,66,67], for the Guadalupe River [26], which was also in the path of HH, and the report of Enterobacteriaceae in marine sponges offshore of Galveston Bay [51]. The EPA and TCEQ [55] recommend Enterococci for estuaries and coastal waters; however, because of logistical issues, Enterococci MPNs were not available for several weeks after HH.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…Global warming is also expected to increase the severity of hurricanes [28]. These climate driven changes could alter the structure of coastal systems and offshore systems [51] more frequently bring many people into contact with floodwater, which creates a public health risk [6, 16]. The response of the system and risks to the populace will vary depending on the system and storm.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Hurricane Harvey Impacts on Water Quality and Microbial Communities in Houston, TX Waterbodies

LaMontagne

Zhang

Guillen

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Hurricanes, and other extreme weather events, can temporarily alter the structure of coastal systems and generate floodwaters that are contaminated with fecal-associated microbes; however, every coastal system and extreme weather event is unique, so identification of trends and commonalities in these episodic events is challenging. To improve our understanding of the resilience of coastal systems to the disturbance of extreme weather events and the risk exposure to floodwaters poses to the public, we monitored water quality, fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) at three stations within Clear Lake, an estuary between Houston and Galveston, and three stations in bayous that feed into the estuary. Water samples were collected immediately before Hurricane Harvey (pre-HH, August 25th, 2017), immediately after (HH, August 30th) and then throughout the fall of 2017 (post-HH). FIB levels were monitored by culturing E. coli and Enterococci. Microbial community structure was profiled by high throughput sequencing of PCR-amplified 16S rRNA gene fragments. Water quality and FIB data was also compared to historical data for these water body segments. Before Harvey, salinity within Clear Lake ranged from 9 to 11 practical salinity units (PSU). Immediately after the storm, salinity dropped to < 1 PSU and then gradually increased to pre-storm and historical levels over two months. Dissolved inorganic nutrient levels were also relatively low immediately after Harvey and returned, within a couple of months, to pre-HH and historical levels. FIB levels were elevated immediately after the storm; however, after one week, E. coli levels had decreased to acceptable levels for freshwater. Enterococci levels collected several weeks after the storm were within the range of historical levels for these water bodies. Microbial community structure shifted from a system dominated by Cyanobacteria sp. before HH to a system dominated by Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes immediately after. Further, several sequences observed only in floodwater showed similarity to sequences previously reported for samples collected following Hurricane Irene. These changes in beta diversity corresponded to salinity and nitrate/nitrite concentrations. Differential abundance analysis of metabolic pathways, predicted from 16S sequences, suggested that pathways associated with virulence and antibiotic resistance were elevated in floodwater. Overall, these results suggest that recovery of the Clear Lake system following Hurricane Harvey took at least a month and floodwater generated from these extreme events may have high levels of fecal contamination, antibiotic resistant bacteria and bacteria rarely observed in other systems.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hurricane Harvey Impacts on Water Quality and Microbial Communities in Houston, TX Waterbodies

LaMontagne

Zhang

Guillen

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…We express our sincere gratitude to the crews of these vessels, as well as members of the NOAA FGBNMS office and Moody Gardens Aquarium (Galveston, TX). This manuscript was released as a pre-print at BioRxiv, under DOI: 10.1101/2020.04.27.064568v3 (Shore et al, 2020).…”

Section: Author Contributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On a Reef Far, Far Away: Anthropogenic Impacts Following Extreme Storms Affect Sponge Health and Bacterial Communities

et al. 2021

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Terrestrial runoff can negatively impact marine ecosystems through stressors including excess nutrients, freshwater, sediments, and contaminants. Severe storms, which are increasing with global climate change, generate massive inputs of runoff over short timescales (hours to days); such runoff impacted offshore reefs in the northwest Gulf of Mexico (NW GoM) following severe storms in 2016 and 2017. Several weeks after coastal flooding from these events, NW GoM reef corals, sponges, and other benthic invertebrates ∼185 km offshore experienced mortality (2016 only) and/or sub-lethal stress (both years). To assess the impact of storm-derived runoff on reef filter feeders, we characterized the bacterial communities of two sponges, Agelas clathrodes and Xestospongia muta, from offshore reefs during periods of sub-lethal stress and no stress over a three-year period (2016—2018). Sponge-associated and seawater-associated bacterial communities were altered during both flood years. Additionally, we found evidence of wastewater contamination (based on 16S rRNA gene libraries and quantitative PCR) in offshore sponge samples, but not in seawater samples, following these flood years. Signs of wastewater contamination were absent during the no-flood year. We show that flood events from severe storms have the capacity to reach offshore reef ecosystems and impact resident benthic organisms. Such impacts are most readily detected if baseline data on organismal physiology and associated microbiome composition are available. This highlights the need for molecular and microbial time series of benthic organisms in near- and offshore reef ecosystems, and the continued mitigation of stormwater runoff and climate change impacts.

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“…One possible explanation is that an increased flux of organic material sinking from the mixed layer drove increased respiration rates in the thermocline. Although we did not measure organic matter in the water column, a microbiome analysis of both diseased and visually healthy sponges samples collected from the East Bank after the mortality event found the presence of several human fecal indicator bacteria within the sponges’ tissues (33). This shows organic material originating in the overlying floodwater plume had made its way into the thermocline.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbial Community Dynamics Provide Evidence for Hypoxia During a Coral Reef Mortality Event

Doyle

Self

Hayes

et al. 2022

Preprint

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In July 2016, a severe coral reef invertebrate mortality event occurred approximately 200km southeast of Galveston, Texas at the East Flower Garden Bank wherein upwards of 80% of corals in a 0.06 km2 area died. Based on surveys of dead corals and other invertebrates shortly after this mortality event, responders hypothesized that localized hypoxia was the most likely direct cause. However, no dissolved oxygen data were available to test this hypothesis because oxygen is not continuously monitored within the Flower Garden Banks sanctuary. Here we quantify microbial plankton community diversity based on four cruises over two years at the Flower Garden Banks, including a cruise just 5-8 days after the mortality event was first observed. In contrast with observations collected during baseline conditions, microbial plankton communities in the thermocline were differentially enriched with taxa known to be active and abundant in oxygen minimum zones or that have known adaptations to oxygen limitation shortly after the mortality event (e.g. SAR324, Thioglobaceae, Nitrosopelagicus, and Thermoplasmata MGII). Unexpectedly, these enrichments were not localized to the East Bank, but were instead prevalent across the entire study area, suggesting there was a widespread depletion of dissolved oxygen concentrations in the thermocline around the time of the mortality event. Hydrographic analysis revealed the southern East Bank coral reef (where the localized mortality event occurred) was uniquely within the thermocline at this time. Our results demonstrate how temporal monitoring of microbial communities can be a useful tool to address questions related to past environmental events.

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On a Reef Far, Far Away: Anthropogenic Impacts Following Extreme Storms Affect Sponge Health and Bacterial Communities

Cited by 8 publications

References 91 publications

Hurricane Harvey Impacts on Water Quality and Microbial Communities in Houston, TX Waterbodies

Hurricane Harvey Impacts on Water Quality and Microbial Communities in Houston, TX Waterbodies

On a Reef Far, Far Away: Anthropogenic Impacts Following Extreme Storms Affect Sponge Health and Bacterial Communities

Microbial Community Dynamics Provide Evidence for Hypoxia During a Coral Reef Mortality Event

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