epibiont metagenome Raw sequence reads

Caulerpa taxifolia is a pantropical green benthic marine macroalga, and one of the best known marine invasive species in temperate coastal habitats. In Australia, this species has been introduced to seven estuaries along New South Wales and one in South Australia. This study experimentally assessed the effects of ocean acidification and global warming on the growth, photosynthetic performance and the bacterial community on two populations of C. taxifolia, one native and one invasive. A range of complex significant interactive effects of pH, temperature, and initial plant size on the growth of C. taxifolia were observed, but no effect on population origin and PSII fluorescence quantum yield parameters were detected. No significant effects of the treatment combinations were observed on bacterial community richness or diversity. Only one bacterial species (OTU) out of 1087 showed significant changes in occurrence between pH treatments at the highest temperature (23ºC). This bacterium belonged to the genus Planctomyces and its relative abundance was more than 10 times higher in samples with low pH compared to the control. Higher plant growth was observed on all higher pCO2 and lower pH conditions suggesting that C. taxifolia will benefit from climate change, posing a potential higher risk on invaded locations.