Functional biogeography of marine microbial heterotrophs

2025/05/22 by Emily J. Zakem, Jesse McNichol, JL Weissman +7 · 1 voice
Environmental Science · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology #Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies #Protist diversity and phylogeny

paper · doi:10.1126/science.ado5323

openalex publication_date 2025/05/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31

Abstract

Heterotrophic bacteria and archaea ("heteroprokaryotes") drive global carbon cycling, but how to quantitatively organize their functional complexity remains unclear. We generated a global-scale understanding of marine heteroprokaryotic functional biogeography by synthesizing genetic sequencing data with a mechanistic marine ecosystem model. We incorporated heteroprokaryotic diversity into the trait-based model along two axes: substrate lability and growth strategy. Using genetic sequences along three ocean transects, we compiled 21 heteroprokaryotic guilds and estimated their degree of optimization for rapid growth (copiotrophy). Data and model consistency indicated that gradients in grazing and substrate lability predominantly set biogeographical patterns, and we identified deep-ocean "slow copiotrophs" whose ecological interactions control the surface accumulation of dissolved organic carbon.

Citations

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Discussions

• We initially developed this index for marine heterotrophs, so we're excited to see it predicting MAG trajectories in a totally different system! doi.org/10.1126/scie... (marine work with Emily Zakem a [bsky, 0 points, 1 comments]

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