Complex Trophic Interactions in an Acidophilic Microbial Community

oleh: Guntram Weithoff, Elanor M. Bell

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2022-07-01

Deskripsi

Extreme habitats often harbor specific communities that differ substantially from non-extreme habitats. In many cases, these communities are characterized by archaea, bacteria and protists, whereas the number of species of metazoa and higher plants is relatively low. In extremely acidic habitats, mostly prokaryotes and protists thrive, and only very few metazoa thrive, for example, rotifers. Since many studies have investigated the physiology and ecology of individual species, there is still a gap in research on direct, trophic interactions among extremophiles. To fill this gap, we experimentally studied the trophic interactions between a predatory protist (<i>Actinophrys sol</i>, Heliozoa) and its prey, the rotifers <i>Elosa woralli</i> and <i>Cephalodella</i> sp., the ciliate <i>Urosomoida</i> sp. and the mixotrophic protist <i>Chlamydomonas acidophila</i> (a green phytoflagellate, Chlorophyta). We found substantial predation pressure on all animal prey. High densities of <i>Chlamydomonas acidophila</i> reduced the predation impact on the rotifers by interfering with the feeding behaviour of <i>A. sol</i>. These trophic relations represent a natural case of intraguild predation, with <i>Chlamydomonas acidophila</i> being the common prey and the rotifers/ciliate and <i>A. sol</i> being the intraguild prey and predator, respectively. We further studied this intraguild predation along a resource gradient using <i>Cephalodella</i> sp. as the intraguild prey. The interactions among the three species led to an increase in relative rotifer abundance with increasing resource (<i>Chlamydomonas</i>) densities. By applying a series of laboratory experiments, we revealed the complexity of trophic interactions within a natural extremophilic community.