Community Characteristics and Ecological Roles of Bacterial Biofilms Associated with Various Algal Settlements on Coastal Reefs

Bacterial biofilms, which are a group of bacteria attaching to and ultimately forming communities on reefs, perform essential ecological functions in coastal ecosystems. Particularly, they may attract or repulse the settling down of opportunistic algae. However, this phenomenon and the interaction mechanism are not fully understood. This study investigated reefs from the Changdao coastal zone to determine the structures and functions of bacterial biofilms symbiosing with various algae using high-throughput sequencing analysis. The Shannon diversity index of microbiota with algal symbiosis reached 5.34, which was higher than that of microbiota wherein algae were absent (4.80). The beta diversity results for 11 samples revealed that there existed a separation between bacterial communities on reefs with and without attached algae, while communities with similar algae clustered together. The taxa mostly associated with algae-symbiotic microbiota are the Actinobacteria phylum, and the Flavobacteriia and Gammaproteobacteria classes. The Cyanobacteria phylum was not associated with algae-symbiotic microbiota. As revealed by functional analysis, the bacteria mostly involved in the metabolism of sulfur were represented by brown and red algae in the biofilm symbiosis. Bacteria related to the metabolism of certain trace elements were observed only in specific groups. Moreover, phototrophy-related bacteria were less abundant in samples coexisting with algae. This study established the link between bacterial biofilms and algal settlements on costal reefs, and revealed the possible holobiont relationship between them. This may provide new technical directions toward realizing algal cultivation and management during the construction of artificial reef ecosystems.