{"title":"Chlorophyll a gradients shift heterotrophic bacterial assembly from dispersal limitation to biotic filtering of picophytoplankton.","authors":"Pin-Yi Chen, Fuh-Kwo Shiah, Gwo-Ching Gong, Chih-Hao Hsieh, Yi-Chun Yeh","doi":"10.1093/ismeco/ycag215","DOIUrl":"10.1093/ismeco/ycag215","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The spatiotemporal dynamics of heterotrophic bacterial communities are critical for regulating elemental cycles. Yet, the processes governing the assembly of these communities across chlorophyll gradients remain unclear, especially regarding biotic interactions. Here, we present a framework that integrates biotic filtering of nanoplankton and picophytoplankton with environmental filtering and dispersal limitation to better elucidate the assembly processes of heterotrophic bacterial communities in a mesoscale marine environment. Microbial communities were collected along a 280 km east-west transect in the southern East China Sea during 13 research cruises conducted in late spring and summer during 2014-2018. Variation partitioning analysis explained 49.8%-78.1% of the variation in heterotrophic bacterial communities across cruises. As concentration of chlorophyll increased, dispersal limitation diminished, while biotic filtering of picophytoplankton intensified. Moreover, the ratio of deterministic to stochastic processes increased with chlorophyll a concentration. These results highlight deterministic processes, particularly biotic filtering of picophytoplankton, in structuring heterotrophic bacterial metacommunities during periods of high chlorophyll a concentration. Our findings emphasize the importance of incorporating biotic interactions into the framework of microbial community assembly to better understand microbial ecosystem responses to varying chlorophyll a conditions.</p>","PeriodicalId":73516,"journal":{"name":"ISME communications","volume":"6 1","pages":"ycag215"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13561414/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148931332","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ISME communicationsPub Date : 2026-07-28eCollection Date: 2026-01-01DOI: 10.1093/ismeco/ycag216
Alex Batista Trentin, Abigayle Simpson, Jeffrey A Kimbrel, Steven J Blazewicz, Roland C Wilhelm
{"title":"SIPdb: a stable isotope probing database and analytical dashboard for linking amplicon sequences to microbial activity using reverse ecology.","authors":"Alex Batista Trentin, Abigayle Simpson, Jeffrey A Kimbrel, Steven J Blazewicz, Roland C Wilhelm","doi":"10.1093/ismeco/ycag216","DOIUrl":"10.1093/ismeco/ycag216","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Stable isotope probing (SIP) connects microbial sequence data to diverse metabolic activities, but the lack of a unifying framework for SIP-derived data has limited its integration into broader strategies for ecological inference. Here, we introduce the SIPdb, an extensible SQLite database of curated nucleic acid SIP experiments (also in phyloseq format) paired with an interactive RShiny dashboard for analysis and visualization. The initial release compiles 22 studies covering 21 isotopolog substrates across diverse environments, standardized using the MISIP metadata standard. SIPdb provides a standardized pipeline accommodating the three most common SIP gradient fractionation strategies (binary, multi-fraction, and density-resolved), two incorporator designation strategies (fixed- and sliding-window), and four complementary differential abundance methods (DESeq2, edgeR, limma-voom, and ALDEx2). Using this pipeline, we identified over 42 000 unique amplicon sequence variants as isotope incorporators across 62 phyla. Benchmarking with SIPSim-generated synthetic datasets showed that position-resolved designs performed best and that differential abundance method contributed comparably to variation in incorporator designation, with DESeq2 suggested as a balanced default. Validation against original publications showed that, on average, SIPdb recovered 70.1% of author-reported incorporators, with discrepancies arising from differences in phylotyping or classification approaches. Finally, reanalysis of a non-SIP study of 1,4-dioxane degradation showed how SIPdb can both validate known degraders and uncover additional candidate taxa involved in community metabolism. SIPdb establishes a scalable platform for reverse ecology, enabling hypothesis generation, cross-study meta-analysis, and linking taxa to metabolic processes, while serving as an open, extensible resource to accelerate ecological interpretation in microbiome research.</p>","PeriodicalId":73516,"journal":{"name":"ISME communications","volume":"6 1","pages":"ycag216"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13518055/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148834917","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ISME communicationsPub Date : 2026-07-27eCollection Date: 2026-01-01DOI: 10.1093/ismeco/ycag202
{"title":"Correction to: Wildfire impact on soil microbiome life history traits and roles in ecosystem carbon cycling.","authors":"","doi":"10.1093/ismeco/ycag202","DOIUrl":"10.1093/ismeco/ycag202","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1093/ismeco/ycae108.].</p>","PeriodicalId":73516,"journal":{"name":"ISME communications","volume":"6 1","pages":"ycag202"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13403901/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148610854","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ISME communicationsPub Date : 2026-07-26eCollection Date: 2026-01-01DOI: 10.1093/ismeco/ycag214
Lerui Zhou, Juanli Yun, Yongcui Deng, Kai Xue, Muhammad Farhan Ul Haque, Andrew Crombie, Anzhou Ma, Yanfen Wang
{"title":"Methanotrophs and methane oxidation in cold wetlands: distribution, ecology, and mechanisms.","authors":"Lerui Zhou, Juanli Yun, Yongcui Deng, Kai Xue, Muhammad Farhan Ul Haque, Andrew Crombie, Anzhou Ma, Yanfen Wang","doi":"10.1093/ismeco/ycag214","DOIUrl":"10.1093/ismeco/ycag214","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Wetlands in cold regions are significant natural sources of methane. Methane-oxidizing microbes (methanotrophs) serve as key players in mitigating methane in these ecosystems. A substantial proportion of methane, often the majority, is oxidized by aerobic methane-oxidizing bacteria (aerobic methanotrophs) before being emitted to the atmosphere. Their diversity, environmental distribution, methane oxidation capacity, and metabolic mechanisms have been intensively studied worldwide across diverse ecosystems. The relatively recent discovery of anaerobic methanotrophic archaea (ANME) and \"<i>Candidatus</i> Methylomirabilota\" (NC10 bacteria) revolutionized our understanding of methane cycling, revealing previously unrecognized anaerobic oxidation strategies, often coupled with various environmental available electron acceptors. Here, we review the role of methanotrophs in cold wetlands on a global scale, focusing on recent developments in our knowledge of their ecological distribution, methane oxidation potential, and cold-adaptation strategies. We discuss future research directions for methanotrophs in cold wetlands. Understanding the cold-adapted lifestyle of methanotrophs will necessitate combined efforts in microbiology, biochemistry, and computational biology. Harnessing the power of cold-adapted methanotrophs has the potential to significantly mitigate global warming by enhancing greenhouse gas uptake.</p>","PeriodicalId":73516,"journal":{"name":"ISME communications","volume":"6 1","pages":"ycag214"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13518059/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148835403","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ISME communicationsPub Date : 2026-07-26eCollection Date: 2026-01-01DOI: 10.1093/ismeco/ycag217
Bledina Dede, Hanna Zehnle, Emilie Skoog, Taylor Priest, Karin Beck, Helmut Bürgmann, Marie C Schoelmerich
{"title":"Active microbial communities and their extrachromosomal elements link organic matter degradation to methane cycling in anoxic sediments.","authors":"Bledina Dede, Hanna Zehnle, Emilie Skoog, Taylor Priest, Karin Beck, Helmut Bürgmann, Marie C Schoelmerich","doi":"10.1093/ismeco/ycag217","DOIUrl":"10.1093/ismeco/ycag217","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Anaerobic carbon transformation in freshwater sediments drives substantial methane emissions globally, yet the microbial taxa linking complex carbon degradation to methane production remain poorly characterized. Here, we combined metagenomics with the first metatranscriptomic dataset from the anoxic sediments of meromictic Lake Cadagno (Swiss Alps) to identify the active microbial clades, metabolic pathways, and extrachromosomal elements (ecDNA) across a depth gradient within the upper 56 cm of sediment. We recovered 802 species-level metagenome-assembled genomes spanning 66 phyla and identified a Bacteroidota clade (VadinHA17) as one of the most abundant and transcriptionally active populations in the sediment. This clade encodes and transcribes a broad range of diverse glycoside hydrolases (GH), indicating a central role in complex carbohydrate degradation. Transcriptional profiles suggest that this clade ferments organic substrates to acetate and hydrogen, which are key substrates for methanogenesis. In line with this, the acetoclastic methanogen <i>Methanothrix</i> and hydrogenotrophic <i>Methanoregula</i> were among the most abundant and transcriptionally active archaea in the same depth layers as VadinHA17. Beyond microbial genomes, we detected 86 905 viral OTUs and 2136 plasmid OTUs, with free viruses and plasmids accounting for 5%-10% and 0.2% of all sequencing reads, respectively. Notably, plasmids and viruses associated with Bacteroidota VadinHA17 encode and transcribe GHs that could augment host carbohydrate-degrading capacity. Together, these findings reveal new details on how methane production in anoxic lake sediments emerges from a network spanning primary fermentation, methanogenesis, and ecDNA-mediated metabolisms.</p>","PeriodicalId":73516,"journal":{"name":"ISME communications","volume":"6 1","pages":"ycag217"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13502194/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148815015","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ISME communicationsPub Date : 2026-07-23eCollection Date: 2026-01-01DOI: 10.1093/ismeco/ycag213
Marija Veličković, Margaret W Thairu, Yuqian Gao, Chaevien S Clendinen, Nathalie Munoz, Priscila M Lalli, Carrie D Nicora, Kelly G Stratton, Matthew E Monroe, Ronald J Moore, Cameron R Currie, Ruonan Wu, Kristin E Burnum-Johnson
{"title":"Deciphering taxon-specific metabolic shifts during pathogenic fungal infection in leaf-cutter ant fungal gardens.","authors":"Marija Veličković, Margaret W Thairu, Yuqian Gao, Chaevien S Clendinen, Nathalie Munoz, Priscila M Lalli, Carrie D Nicora, Kelly G Stratton, Matthew E Monroe, Ronald J Moore, Cameron R Currie, Ruonan Wu, Kristin E Burnum-Johnson","doi":"10.1093/ismeco/ycag213","DOIUrl":"10.1093/ismeco/ycag213","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Leaf-cutter ant fungal gardens are a living library of bioeconomy solutions, where the mutualist fungus <i>Leucoagaricus gongylophorus</i> drives lignocellulose degradation and conversion into valuable bioproducts. However, these gardens are vulnerable to infection by the specialized pathogen <i>Escovopsis weberi</i>, which disrupts garden stability. Despite their ecological importance, the metabolic mechanisms underlying fungal-fungal competition and community-level responses to infection remain poorly understood. To address this gap, we experimentally infected six fungal garden consortia with <i>E. weberi</i>, establishing an infection gradient within each consortium, which we then systematically analyzed using a multi-omics approach. Metabolomic profiling revealed infection-induced alterations in metabolite abundance, while metaproteomic analysis identified fungal-specific shifts in protein levels across a spatiotemporal scale. The integration of multi-omics datasets across all fungal garden consortia provided a comprehensive view of the underlying pathways, revealing that the pathogenic fungus exploits nutrient supplies derived from lignocellulose degradation by native fungi. Reconstruction of active pathways enabled us to trace nutrient flow and map taxon-specific metabolic shifts in response to infection. Specifically, a distinct switch from lysine synthesis by native fungi to lysine catabolism orchestrated by pathogenic fungi. These findings offer a system-level perspective of the molecular alterations driving competitive interactions between native and pathogenic species within the fungal garden consortium. This study not only highlights the power of multi-omics approaches in unraveling the complexity of microbial consortia across ecological scales but also provides an integrated road map to efficiently harness microbiome data for deeper insights into microbial interactions and community responses to perturbations.</p>","PeriodicalId":73516,"journal":{"name":"ISME communications","volume":"6 1","pages":"ycag213"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13499455/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148802466","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ISME communicationsPub Date : 2026-07-23eCollection Date: 2026-01-01DOI: 10.1093/ismeco/ycag211
Gaofei Song, Fengfeng Cheng, Zhixian Qiao, Feng Ge, Yonghong Bi
{"title":"Phycosphere microbiome contributes to ecological dominance of diatoms: a comparative study of <i>Cyclotella atomus</i> and <i>Ulnaria ulna</i>.","authors":"Gaofei Song, Fengfeng Cheng, Zhixian Qiao, Feng Ge, Yonghong Bi","doi":"10.1093/ismeco/ycag211","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ismeco/ycag211","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Diatoms play a crucial role in aquatic ecosystems, yet the mechanisms underlying their long-term dominance remain poorly understood. This study investigated the relationship between diatom ecological persistence and their phycosphere bacterial communities by comparing the long-term dominant species <i>Cyclotella atomus</i> with the short-term dominant species <i>Ulnaria ulna</i>. 16S rRNA gene sequencing combined with predictive functional profiling revealed that the bacterial community associated with <i>C. atomus</i> was more diverse, stable, and interconnected than that associated with <i>U. ulna</i>. Taxonomic analysis identified key bacterial taxa such as <i>Gemmatimonas</i>, <i>Sphingobium</i>, and <i>Pseudorhodoferax</i> enriched in <i>C. atomus</i>. Co-occurrence network analysis demonstrated higher microbial interaction complexity in <i>C. atomus</i>, enhancing functional redundancy and ecosystem stability. Functional predictions indicated significant enrichment in carbohydrate metabolism (glycosaminoglycan degradation, pentose/glucose interconversion) and stress response pathways (betaine biosynthesis, xenobiotic metabolism by cytochrome P450) in the <i>C. atomus</i> microbiome, supporting a mutualistic relationship in which diatom-derived extracellular polymeric substances sustains specialized bacteria that reciprocate with vitamin B<sub>12</sub>, phytohormones, and chemical defenses. Based on these results, a mutually reinforced symbiotic cycle model was proposed to illustrate how the diatom and its phycosphere microbiome established a resilient holobiont capable of prolonged ecological dominance. The bacterial community associated with each diatom species exhibited host specificity and contributed to the maintenance of host dominance. These findings highlight the critical role of microbial partnerships in diatom success, offering new insights for predicting phytoplankton community dynamics and managing aquatic ecosystems.</p>","PeriodicalId":73516,"journal":{"name":"ISME communications","volume":"6 1","pages":"ycag211"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13477216/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148763276","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Transitive interactions among rhizobia determine their symbiotic fitness.","authors":"Margarita Granada Agudelo, Bryan Ruiz, Jean-Baptiste Ferdy, Delphine Capela, Philippe Remigi","doi":"10.1093/ismeco/ycag210","DOIUrl":"10.1093/ismeco/ycag210","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>During host-microbe symbioses, the fitness of mutualistic microbes is determined by the interactions that concurrently occur, throughout their life cycle, with their host and other members of the surrounding microbial community. Disentangling how these multiple interactions shape the fitness of microbial symbionts is challenging but is essential to understand the diversity and functioning of mutualisms. Here, we examined the different fitness components of rhizobial symbionts of the legume plant <i>Mimosa pudica</i> across the multiple stages of their symbiotic life cycle. By comparing rhizobial symbiotic fitness in single and pairwise inoculations, we found that interbacterial interactions causing significant fitness effects are common and can have major consequences, sometimes leading to the extinction of a strain. These interactions predominantly occur at the root infection (nodulation) step, but weaker postinfection interaction effects, involving yet uncharacterized mechanisms, were also detected. Furthermore, pairwise interaction effects were transitive and enabled to predict fitness ranks in more complex rhizobial communities consisting of six or eight strains, indicating that higher-order interaction effects do not play a significant role in these communities. Overall, our results provide a quantitative framework to describe the main drivers of rhizobial symbiotic fitness in a simple community context.</p>","PeriodicalId":73516,"journal":{"name":"ISME communications","volume":"6 1","pages":"ycag210"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13557124/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148921276","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ISME communicationsPub Date : 2026-07-21eCollection Date: 2026-01-01DOI: 10.1093/ismeco/ycag208
Kerina González-Pino, Agustina Undabarrena, Francisca Morales, Néstor Serna-Cardona, Pamela T Muñoz, Paula S M Celis-Plá, Daniela Rago, Verónica Molina, Nelso P Navarro, Claudio A Sáez, Céline Lavergne, Beatriz Cámara, Catherine Tessini, Gabriela B Pérez-Hernández, Jeniffer Pereira-Rojas, Linda Ahonen, Polette Aguilar-Muñoz, Fernanda Rodríguez-Rojas
{"title":"Integrated holobiont responses of the Antarctic brown seaweed <i>Adenocystis utricularis</i> to thermal stress under a climate change scenario.","authors":"Kerina González-Pino, Agustina Undabarrena, Francisca Morales, Néstor Serna-Cardona, Pamela T Muñoz, Paula S M Celis-Plá, Daniela Rago, Verónica Molina, Nelso P Navarro, Claudio A Sáez, Céline Lavergne, Beatriz Cámara, Catherine Tessini, Gabriela B Pérez-Hernández, Jeniffer Pereira-Rojas, Linda Ahonen, Polette Aguilar-Muñoz, Fernanda Rodríguez-Rojas","doi":"10.1093/ismeco/ycag208","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ismeco/ycag208","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Antarctic intertidal zone hosts ecologically pivotal holobionts such as the brown macroalga <i>Adenocystis utricularis</i>, whose response to climate-driven stressors remains poorly understood. Here, we applied an integrative holobiont framework combining microbial community profiling, host physiological assays, and phycosphere metabolomics to assess how thermal stress (2°C vs. 8°C) influences microbiome dynamics, host stress responses, and algal surface chemistry after 5 days under experimental conditions. Results showed that warming induced a transient reduction in microbial diversity, with Shannon diversity decreasing at Day 3 under 8°C and returning to levels comparable to the control by Day 5, accompanied by marked community structural reorganization. Elevated temperature enriched Campylobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria, while Bacteroidia and Verrucomicrobia decreased. Functional predictions revealed a shift from nutrient cycling and carbon turnover at 2°C toward heterotrophy, fermentation, and bacterivory-related pathways at 8°C. Microbiome disruption was associated with impaired photosynthetic performance, increased oxidative damage, reduced antioxidant defenses, and altered osmolyte accumulation, under warming conditions. Untargeted metabolomics uncovered pronounced thermal reprogramming of the algal surface metabolome, with >98% of detected features remaining chemically uncharacterized. Detected key metabolites included ceramides, N-acyl amino acids, and amphipathic compounds with putative cytotoxic or antioxidant activities, many of which increased under 8°C. Together, these findings demonstrate that <i>A. utricularis</i> response to thermal stress emerges from dynamic host-microbiome-metabolome interactions. By linking microbial restructuring, host physiology, and metabolomic plasticity, our study highlights the holobiont as the operative unit of adaptation in Antarctic coastal ecosystems facing climate change.</p>","PeriodicalId":73516,"journal":{"name":"ISME communications","volume":"6 1","pages":"ycag208"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13493149/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148802437","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ISME communicationsPub Date : 2026-07-19eCollection Date: 2026-01-01DOI: 10.1093/ismeco/ycag212
Matthias Wietz, Manuela van Pinxteren, Heike M Freese, Cathrin Spröer, Sebastian Zeppenfeld
{"title":"Seasonal connectivity of microbes and carbohydrates between ocean, atmosphere, and cryosphere in Kongsfjorden (Svalbard, Arctic Ocean).","authors":"Matthias Wietz, Manuela van Pinxteren, Heike M Freese, Cathrin Spröer, Sebastian Zeppenfeld","doi":"10.1093/ismeco/ycag212","DOIUrl":"10.1093/ismeco/ycag212","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The coupling between ocean and atmosphere across the strong seasonal gradients in the Arctic is poorly understood. Here, we explored the microbial and glycobiological connectivity between the surface microlayer, the underlying seawater, snow, and aerosol particles in Kongsfjorden (Svalbard, 79°N) during autumn and spring. The marked overlap between marine and atmospheric microbiomes illustrates considerable sea-air transfer, linked to seasonally distinct environmental communities. For instance, <i>Polaribacter</i> and <i>Formosa</i> were aerosolized during the spring bloom, compared to <i>Colwellia</i> in autumn. Air-mass histories and microbial source tracking revealed a greater marine contribution in autumn, whereas spring aerosols were shaped by stronger winds and the cryosphere. Aerosol particles nonetheless contained numerous unique taxa, including Actinomycetes and Planctomycetia. Linking bacterial, microeukaryotic, carbohydrate, and meteorological dynamics established an overarching perspective across seasons and habitats, identifying five distinct ecosystem states. Genome-sequenced bacterial model isolates, representing key environmental populations, encode adaptive traits such as carotenoid and ectoine biosynthesis, linked to niche specialization and atmospheric transfer. Time-series records from the nearby Fram Strait revealed that many aerosolized taxa are core microbiome components; shaping ecology and biogeochemistry across the wider Arctic.</p>","PeriodicalId":73516,"journal":{"name":"ISME communications","volume":"6 1","pages":"ycag212"},"PeriodicalIF":6.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13518058/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148834086","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}