Determinants of community structure in the global plankton interactome

TLDR

Species interaction networks are shaped by abiotic and biotic factors. The study examined the photic zone interactome in the Tara Oceans project to determine whether environmental factors and organismal abundance profiles predict community structure. The authors constructed a network of grazers, primary producers, viruses, and parasitic symbionts from abundance data and validated predicted interactions with microscopy. The study revealed that environmental factors alone poorly predict community structure, that associations among functional types and phylogenetic groups are nonrandom and shaped by local and global patterns, that key interactions among grazers, producers, viruses, and symbionts were identified and confirmed microscopically, and that a comprehensive resource for ocean food web research has been produced.

Abstract

Species interaction networks are shaped by abiotic and biotic factors. Here, as part of the Tara Oceans project, we studied the photic zone interactome using environmental factors and organismal abundance profiles and found that environmental factors are incomplete predictors of community structure. We found associations across plankton functional types and phylogenetic groups to be nonrandomly distributed on the network and driven by both local and global patterns. We identified interactions among grazers, primary producers, viruses, and (mainly parasitic) symbionts and validated network-generated hypotheses using microscopy to confirm symbiotic relationships. We have thus provided a resource to support further research on ocean food webs and integrating biological components into ocean models.