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Establishment of a Halophilic Bloom in a Sterile and Isolated Hypersaline Mesocosm
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Establishment of a Halophilic Bloom in a Sterile and Isolated Hypersaline Mesocosm

Matthew E. Rhodes, Allyson D. Pace, Menny M. Benjamin, Heather Ghent and Katherine S. Dawson
Microorganisms (Basel), v 11(12), 2886
29 Nov 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms11122886
PMID: 38138031
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
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https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms11122886View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open

Abstract

Life Sciences & Biomedicine Science & Technology Microbiology
Extreme environments, including hypersaline pools, often serve as biogeographical islands. Putative colonizers would need to survive transport across potentially vast distances of inhospitable terrain. Hyperhalophiles, in particular, are often highly sensitive to osmotic pressure. Here, we assessed whether hyperhalophiles are capable of rapidly colonizing an isolated and sterile hypersaline pool and the order of succession of the ensuing colonizers. A sterile and isolated 1 m3 hypersaline mesocosm pool was constructed on a rooftop in Charleston, SC. Within months, numerous halophilic lineages successfully navigated the 20 m elevation and the greater than 1 km distance from the ocean shore, and a vibrant halophilic community was established. All told, in a nine-month period, greater than a dozen halophilic genera colonized the pool. The first to arrive were members of the Haloarchaeal genus Haloarcula. Like a weed, the Haloarcula rapidly colonized and dominated the mesocosm community but were later supplanted by other hyperhalophilic genera. As a possible source of long-distance inoculum, both aerosol and water column samples were obtained from the Great Salt Lake and its immediate vicinity. Members of the same genus, Haloarcula, were preferentially enriched in the aerosol sample relative to the water column samples. Therefore, it appears that a diverse array of hyperhalophiles are capable of surviving aeolian long-distance transport and that some lineages, in particular, have possibly adapted to that strategy.

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Microbiology
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