Bacterial communities and relative abundances of the pathogen Vibrio coralliilyticus in feces of coral reef fish collected on the north shore of Mo’orea, French Polynesia, Oct 2020

Understanding how microbial communities in consumer feces may impact ecosystem health may improve conservation and restoration efforts. To test how microbial communities in fish feces may affect coral reef health, we collected fecal samples from ten fish species, ranging from obligate corallivore to grazer/detritivore. Additionally, samples of corals, algae, sediments, and seawater were collected to test whether bacterial taxa in these samples were also represented in fish feces (N = 5-14 per fish, coral, or algae species/genus). All collections were conducted in October 2020 from the back reef (1-2 m depth) and fore reef (5-10 m depth) in Moorea, between LTER sites 1 and 2 of the Moorea Coral Reef (MCR) Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site. We conducted bacterial 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding on all samples and found that fecal communities of bacteria differed among fish guilds (obligate corallivores, facultative corallivores, grazer/detritivores). We also used real-time PCR to quantify abundances of Vibrio coralliilyticus, a known coral pathogen, in all fecal samples. Samples were collected and processed, and data were analyzed, by the authors of Grupstra et al., 2023.探明异养消费者粪便中的微生物群落如何影响生态系统健康，有助于优化生态保护与修复工作。为探究鱼类粪便微生物群落对珊瑚礁健康的影响，我们从10种鱼类中采集了粪便样本，涵盖从专性食珊瑚动物（obligate corallivore）到植食/碎屑食性动物（grazer/detritivore）的各类鱼类功能类群。此外，我们还采集了珊瑚、藻类、沉积物及海水样本，以检测这些样本中的细菌类群是否也存在于鱼类粪便中（每种鱼类、珊瑚或藻类物种/属的样本量为5~14份）。所有样本采集工作于2020年10月在茉莉雅岛的礁后区（水深1~2米）与礁前区（水深5~10米）开展，采样点位位于茉莉雅珊瑚礁（Moorea Coral Reef, MCR）长期生态研究（Long Term Ecological Research, LTER）站点1与站点2之间的区域。我们对所有样本开展了细菌16S rRNA基因宏条形码测序分析，结果显示不同鱼类功能群的粪便细菌群落结构存在显著差异，涉及的功能类群包括专性食珊瑚动物、兼性食珊瑚动物（facultative corallivore）及植食/碎屑食性动物。我们还通过实时荧光定量PCR（real-time PCR）对所有粪便样本中的已知珊瑚病原菌——珊瑚致病弧菌（Vibrio coralliilyticus）的丰度进行了定量检测。本研究的样本采集、处理及数据分析工作由Grupstra等人（2023）完成。