Short-Term Exposure to High-Temperature Water Causes a Shift in the Microbiome of the Common Aquarium Sponge Lendenfeldia chondrodes

Abstract

Marine sponges harbor diverse microbiomes that contribute to their energetic and metabolic needs. Although numerous studies on sponge microbial diversity exist, relatively few focused on sponge microbial community changes under different sources of environmental stress. In this study, we assess the impact of elevated seawater temperature on the microbiome of cultured Lendenfeldia chondrodes, a coral reef sponge commonly found in marine aquaria. Lendenfeldia chondrodes exhibits high thermal tolerance showing no evidence of tissue damage or bleaching at 5°C above control water temperature (26°C). Highthroughput sequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA V4 region revealed a response of the microbiome of L. chondrodes to shortterm exposure to elevated seawater temperature. Shifts in abundance and richness of the dominant bacterial phyla found in the microbiome of this species, namely Proteobacteria, Cyanobacteria, Planctomycetes, and Bacteroidetes, characterized this response. The observed resilience of L. chondrodes and the responsiveness of its microbiome to short-term increases in seawater temperature suggest that this holobiont may be capable of acclimating to anthropogenic-driven sublethal environmental stress via a re-accommodation of its associated bacterial community. This sheds a new light on the potential for resilience of some sponges to increasing surface seawater temperatures and associated projected regime shifts in coral reefs.

Metagenomic Insights into the Structure of Microbial Communities Involved in Nitrogen Cycling in Two Integrated Multitrophic Aquaculture (IMTA) Ponds

“…The response of the microbiome to the coculture of S. constricta in shrimp-crab ponds and different environments involved a re-accommodation of microbial community βdiversity. The separation of the microbial community may indicate the functions of rare species and revealed the stability of the core microbial community [41,42]. In this study, the results indicate that the clear separation of SC and SCC in water samples would mainly be affected by changes in rare species.…”

Thermal Stress Has Minimal Effects on Bacterial Communities of Thermotolerant Symbiodinium Cultures

“…Bacterial diversity of S. microadriaticum and S. necroappetens remained stable at high temperatures while that of S. pilosum was significantly lower at 32 • C. Stable H' values across different environmental conditions can indicate a lack of substantive change in community composition, or that the combined richness and evenness of the community is relatively stable (Kimbro and Grosholz, 2006;Willis, 2019). The flexibility that we observed in S. pilosum may be related to its higher thermotolerance, as acclimating to rapid changes in environmental conditions has been associated with dramatic shifts in bacterial community composition (Vargas et al, 2020;Voolstra and Ziegler, 2020). In contrast to our results, Camp et al (2020) found that the microbiome of Durusdinium trenchii, a thermotolerant Symbiodiniaceae, remained stable at high temperatures.…”

How does heat stress affect sponge microbiomes? Structure and resilience of microbial communities of marine sponges from different habitats

“…Gradual ocean warming and more frequent heat wave episodes, along with other phenomena associated to anthropogenic climate change, have detrimental effects on benthic communities (Smale et al, 2019;Cooley et al, 2022). Environmental stress may cause imbalance of the microbial communities of sponges and other benthic components, disrupting or changing the holobiont's functions, and ultimately affecting the whole ecosystem (Pita et al, 2018;Ramsby et al, 2018;Rondon et al, 2020;Rubio-Portillo et al, 2021;Vargas et al, 2021). Since responses to heat stress seem to be related to the sponge host species, we assessed the effect of heat stress and extreme heat stress in aquarium experiments on the four sponge species analyzed previously, which are important components of the benthos at different latitudes, and therefore, adapted to different climate conditions.…”

“…Webster et al, 2008;Lesser et al, 2016;McDevitt-Irwin et al, 2017). Some studies have addressed the effect of elevated seawater temperature particularly on sponges, both on their physiology and on their microbiota (Simister et al, 2012b;Simister et al, 2012a;Vargas et al, 2021). While some sponges exposed to thermal stress suffered from tissue necrosis and bleaching (e.g.…”