The Microbial Ecology of Estuarine Ecosystems

Abstract

Human civilization relies on estuaries, and many estuarine ecosystem services are provided by microbial communities. These services include high rates of primary production that nourish harvests of commercially valuable species through fisheries and aquaculture, the transformation of terrestrial and anthropogenic materials to help ensure the water quality necessary to support recreation and tourism, and mutualisms that maintain blue carbon accumulation and storage. Research on the ecology that underlies microbial ecosystem services in estuaries has expanded greatly across a range of estuarine environments, including water, sediment, biofilms, biological reefs, and stands of seagrasses, marshes, and mangroves. Moreover, the application of new molecular tools has improved our understanding of the diversity and genomic functions of estuarine microbes. This review synthesizes recent research on microbial habitats in estuaries and the contributions of microbes to estuarine food webs, elemental cycling, and interactions with plants and animals, and highlights novel insights provided by recent advances in genomics. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Marine Science, Volume 16 is January 2024. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

The Use of Boosted Regression Trees to Predict the Occurrence and Quantity of Staphylococcus aureus in Recreational Marine Waterways

“…Overall, these findings underscore the potential impact of stormwater on bacterial contamination levels in marine waters and highlight the need for effective stormwater management strategies to mitigate public health risks associated with waterborne pathogens. Freshwater inputs create fluctuations in salinities within estuary environments that affect microbial communities, especially at the marine-freshwater boundaries and in large coastal bays [48][49][50]. According to the Tampa Bay Estuary program (https://tbep.org/ accessed on 8 April 2024), the salinity between the lower and northern regions of the Tampa Bay estuary ranges from 25-38 ppt and 18-32 ppt, respectively, with the lowest salinities seen in Hillsborough Bay (15-30 ppt) (see Figure 1).…”

“…Freshwater inputs create fluctuations in salinities within estuary environments that affect microbial communities, especially at the marine-freshwater boundaries and in large coastal bays [48][49][50]. According to the Tampa Bay Estuary program (https://tbep.org/ accessed on 8 April 2024), the salinity between the lower and northern regions of the Tampa Bay estuary ranges from 25-38 ppt and 18-32 ppt, respectively, with the lowest salinities seen in Hillsborough Bay (15-30 ppt) (see Figure 1).…”

Comparative metagenomic analysis of bacterial communities and functional profiles in urban-influenced blue carbon ecosystems

“…The mangrove environment, therefore, supports a more complex and varied microbial community, with a greater potential for complex ecological interactions and functions. This complexity is likely due to the diverse range of habitats within mangroves, including water columns, sediments, and specialized root systems, each hosting distinct microbial communities (Liu et al, 2023;Crump & Bowen, 2024). This richness enhances the mangrove's capacity for resilience and adaptability to environmental changes, such as fluctuations in salinity and nutrient availability (Alongi, 2008;Jennerjahn et al, 2017;Wang & Gu, 2021).…”

Parent-specific transgenerational immune priming enhances offspring defense – unless heat-stress negates it all

“…Pipefishes inhabiting coastal seagrass ecosystems are exposed to a high diversity of microbes (63), with Vibrio bacteria belonging to both the most abundant bacteria in the water column as well as in the pipefishes' gut microbiomes (64)(65)(66)(67)(68). Over the season, Vibrio bacteria may alter from mutualistic members of the microbiome to virulent disease agents through rapid changes in abiotic factors (e.g., temperature and salinity), reinforced by the increasing frequency of heatwaves in recent years (69)(70)(71).…”