Southern Plains Rivers

Vaughn, Caryn C.; Gido, Keith B.; Bestgen, Kevin R.; Perkin, Joshuah S.; Platania, Steven P.

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-818847-7.00011-2

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…Indeed, we observed significant decreases in both richness and evenness of the sediment microbial communities that stabilized by day three, and sampling date was the strongest predictor of sediment microbial community composition over time. The change from a nitrogen‐limited river (Vaughn et al, 2023) to mesocosms with a relatively high concentration of ambient NO 3 , among other environmental factors, likely contributed to this overall change over time. However, while sampling date was a strong predictor of microbial community structure, mussel‐driven changes to microbial communities were strong enough to consistently persist despite these background changes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mussels and sediment were collected from the Kiamichi River, a fifth order river in southeastern Oklahoma US. This relatively pristine river is known for its high aquatic diversity, including ~30 species of freshwater mussels (Vaughn et al, 2023). Ecosystem effects of mussels in this river have been well‐studied, especially their effects on nutrient cycling (Atkinson et al, 2018; Atkinson & Vaughn, 2015).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Freshwater mussels promote functional redundancy in sediment microbial communities under different nutrient regimes

Higgins,

Parr,

Vaughn

2023

Functional Ecology

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Animals are a critical component of biogeochemical cycles. While animal mediated fluxes of nutrients and energy have received considerable attention, the impacts of these fluxes on microbial community structure and function are comparatively understudied. Here, we investigated if freshwater mussel influences on biogeochemical cycling in stream sediment are accompanied by changes in sediment microbial community composition and ecoenzymatic activity, and if these relationships change under different nutrient regimes. We predicted that mussel effects on ecosystem function are reflected by modified sediment microbial communities. We hypothesized that if changes in either sediment ecoenzymatic function or microbial community composition are driven by mussel‐derived nutrient amendments, we should see muted changes in microbial community assemblages or function when a given nutrient is abundant. However, if microbial communities and function are influenced by other mussel functions, then we should see uniform changes regardless of nutrient availability. We transplanted freshwater mussels and natural river sediment to flow‐through mesocosms and monitored changes in microbial community composition over 1 week. Our results indicate that mussels always changed sediment microbial community composition, but the way communities changed was dependent on ambient nutrient concentrations. On the final day we measured the activity of ecoenzymes known to correlate to microbial function and nutrient availability. Mussels homogenized the stoichiometric ratios of ecoenzyme activities, indicating a consistent function of sediment microbes associated with freshwater mussels. Our results suggest that mussels may promote functional redundancy in sediment microbial communities and highlight the importance of animals in controlling biogeochemical transformations under changing nutrient conditions. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%