MM51A:
Functional, Ecological, and Evolutionary Implications of Microdiversity and Intraspecific Variability in Aquatic Microorganisms II


Session ID#: 37437

Session Description:
Many aquatic microorganisms exist as diverse genetic clusters, rather than clone-like populations. However, the implications of this variability remain unclear. In some instances, this microheterogeneity has been linked to differences in distribution and function, known as ecotypes. We expect that intra-specific trait variability plays an important role in determining the outcome of inter-specific competition, and hence overall biodiversity. On one hand, intra-specific variability can cause niche overlapping, thereby reducing diversity, at least as systems approach steady state. On the other hand, intra-specific variability can also reduce fitness differences, thereby lengthening extinction timescales and sustaining diversity in dynamic environments. In general, however, it remains unclear how aquatic microorganisms diversify and evolve into genetically and ecologically different populations.

Recent methodological advances including high throughput sequencing, informatics, and metabolomics are being applied to investigate genetic variation, evolutionary events, and functional differentiation within sets of closely related microorganisms. Such studies seek to understand the influence of microdiversity on the stability, resilience, biodiversity, and function of ecosystems. Submissions to this session investigate the impact of microdiversity on the ecology, evolution, and function of populations of microorganisms in aquatic systems using any approach, including theoretical analysis, numerical modeling, observational and experimental studies.

Primary Chair:  Sherwood Lan Smith, JAMSTEC Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, RCGC, Kanagawa, Japan
Co-chairs:  Michael S Rappe, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, United States, Bingzhang Chen, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, RCGC, Yokohama, Japan and David Needham, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Moss Landing, CA, United States
Moderators:  Bingzhang Chen, JAMSTEC Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, RCGC, Yokohama, Japan, Sherwood Lan Smith, JAMSTEC, Yokohama, Japan, David Needham, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Moss Landing, CA, United States and Michael S Rappe, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, United States
Student Paper Review Liaison:  David Needham, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Moss Landing, CA, United States
Index Terms:

4813 Ecological prediction [OCEANOGRAPHY: BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL]
4815 Ecosystems, structure, dynamics, and modeling [OCEANOGRAPHY: BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL]
4817 Food webs, structure, and dynamics [OCEANOGRAPHY: BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL]
4858 Population dynamics and ecology [OCEANOGRAPHY: BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL]
Cross-Topics:
  • B - Biodiversity
  • ES - Ecology and Social Interactions
  • OM - Ocean Modeling

Abstracts Submitted to this Session:

From foe to friend: intra-specific variability in plankton movements and physiology helps unravel underpinnings of observable abundance and distribution patterns (318041)
Susanne Menden-Deuer, University of Rhode Island, Graduate School of Oceanography, Narragansett, RI, United States and Julie Marie Rowlett, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, Mathematical Sciences, Sweden
Multi-year high-resolution specific activity patterns of sympatric microbial populations in an oxygen minimum zone (325328)
Rohan Sachdeva and John F Heidelberg, University of Southern California, Marine Environmental Biology, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Interplay of Temperature and Genetic Composition on the Seasonal Size Distributions of the Mixotrophic Ciliate, Mesodinium, on the New England Shelf (323347)
Emily Brownlee1, Matthew D Johnson2, David J. Beaudoin1, Robert J. Olson1 and Heidi M Sosik1, (1)Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, United States, (2)Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Biology Department, Woods Hole, MA, United States

See more of: Microbiology and Molecular Ecology