Abstract
Marine environments are expected to be one of the most affected ecosystems by climate change, notably with increasing ocean temperature and ocean acidification. In marine environments, microbial communities provide important ecosystem services ensuring biogeochemical cycles. They are threatened by the modification of environmental parameters induced by climate change that, in turn, affect their activities. Microbial mats, ensuring important ecosystem services in coastal areas, are well-organized communities of diverse microorganisms representing accurate microbial models. It is hypothesized that their microbial diversity and metabolic versatility will reveal various adaptation strategies in response to climate change. Thus, understanding how climate change affects microbial mats will provide valuable information on microbial behaviour and functioning in changed environment. Experimental ecology, based on mesocosm approaches, provides the opportunity to control physical-chemical parameters, as close as possible to those observed in the environment. The exposure of microbial mats to physical-chemical conditions mimicking the climate change predictions will help to decipher the modification of the microbial community structure and function in response to it. Here, we present how to expose microbial mats, following a mesocosm approach, to study the impact of climate change on microbial community.
1. Introduction
In the marine environment, climate change is predicted to have great and long-term impacts (; ). The increase in air temperature due to the enhanced greenhouse effect will impact first the surface water temperature and then the deep ocean temperature (; ; ; ). The global surface temperature of the ocean is projected to exceed 2°C (relative to 1850–1900 temperatures) for the 22nd century according to RCP8.5 (). Moreover, global warming is predicted to release faster CO2 into the atmosphere, increasing its concentration from 390 ppm to 700 ppm by 2100 (). This rise will lead to a decrease in pH between 0.3 and 0.4 units. Ocean acidification is associated with increasing concentrations of HCO3–, CO2, and H+ and decreasing concentrations of CO32–. Thus, the global carbon cycle is directly affected by ocean acidification. Ocean models also predicted a decline in the dissolved oxygen inventory of 1–7% by 2100 (). These physical-chemical changes will have a strong impact on marine life. Microorganisms are abundant and diverse in the oceans, with 4 × 1029 cells in the deep oceanic subsurface, 5 × 1028 cells in the upper oceanic sediment and 1 × 1029 cells in the oceans (). They dominate the metabolic activity, for example, ensuring approximately half of the global primary production of the oceans (). They play a central role in the biogeochemical cycles, as well as in the exchange of trace gases that have direct impacts on local climate (). They are also crucial for the good functioning of the aquatic ecosystems being at the basis of food webs. Thus, marine microbial communities are expected to play a central role in the response of the ecosystem faced with environmental change because of their key functions in the oceans ().
Microbial mats are laminated microbial structures () observed at the water-sediment interface in several environments (; ; ). They show a vertical stratification according to different physical-chemical gradients such as oxygen, sulphide, and pH. In such organization different interacting metabolisms coexist allowing microbial mats to be self-sustaining structure ensuring important ecosystem services in coastal areas (). In response to environmental changes, microbial mats can show various strategies due to their versatility and large diversity, as well as to their functional resilience (). They represent ideal microbial community model to study the effect of global changes.
Current climate change effects on microbial communities can be investigated but it is difficult to simulate the conditions induced by climate change in situ, especially the acidification that remains difficult to control in open natural environments. Different approaches have been developed to study climate change effects on organisms inhabiting marine environments. Some studies focused on specific natural environments defined as models where one or several environmental parameters are similar to those predicted by IPCC, such as hot springs to simulate a high water temperature (; ). However, the microorganisms inhabiting these environments are already adapted to the physical-chemical changes occurring on them and no temporal changes comparable to those due to climate change are observed. Moreover, the environmental complexity does not allow a definitive conclusion on the cause(s) of the observed changes. Thus, the precise impact on the environmental functioning and the dynamic of the microbial community in response to climate change cannot be studied.
Global changes are rapid simultaneous changes of environmental factors due to anthropogenic activities which threaten marine microorganisms. So far, little knowledge has been acquired to predict the effect of combined alteration of several environmental factors on marine microbial communities. Understanding the microbial communities shifts in response to the modification of environmental factors would allow to predict the effect of global changes on ecosystem functioning (). In order to gain such knowledge, it is thus necessary to develop accurate and controlled strategies to expose model microbial community to controlled climate change conditions. The mesocosms are a good approach because they allow the implementation of artificial scenarios by controlling physical-chemical parameters mimicking as close as possible the natural environment or the environmental conditions to be simulated (). It is also possible to distinguish each factor independently allowing thus the characterization of their precise impact. Other advantages are that replicates and analysis can be multiplied, as well as manipulations can be performed without the constraints encountered in situ (). Data collection and analysis are thus facilitated. Mesocosms are enclosed ecosystem experiments that have gained in popularity as research tools in ecological science, particularly in the study of coastal aquatic environments (). Mesocosms have been developed for many applications, including the study of environmental stress (), hydrocarbon degradation (), simulated oil spill (), climate change simulation (; ). Mesocosms have been used to analyse the behaviour of specific microbial communities (; ), and of complex microbial structure such as biofilm () and microbial mats (). They allow the control of different physical-chemical parameters and the association of them that can act synergistically (; ; ; ), which thus allows to disentangle the impact of the studied factors from other environmental factors (). So far, most studies have focused on the impact on one specific population or microorganisms (; ; ; ; ; ) in a specific environmental compartment, such as water column and deep-sea benthos (). However, the investigation of complex microbial assemblages is necessary to obtain data representative of the reality (). For that, a good microbial community model, representing a complex network of microorganisms, diversified at both the taxonomic and functional levels, is required. Microbial mats have been shown to represent good microbial community models in experimental ecology, particularly revealing the effect of oil spills on microbial community structure (,) and functioning (,). Moreover, microorganisms inhabiting microbial mats are well-adapted to physical-chemical fluctuations () making them adequate models to study climate change in microbial ecosystems. To the best of our knowledge, only a few studies have reported the impact of climate change on microbial mats (; ). In this paper, an experimental methodology is proposed where microbial mats were used as a microbial community model in a mesocosm experiment, representative of coastal areas, which showed to be a good way for deciphering climate change effect on complex microbial community.
2. Materials and methods
Climate change was simulated by ocean acidification and warming according to the most pessimistic scenario (RCP8.5) predicted by IPCC ().
2.1. Mesocosms design
Microbial mats for mesocosm experiments came from a non-exploited salt marsh located in Ars-en-Ré (46°13′29.9″N 1°31′07.5″W, Ré Island, France). These microbial mats were selected as microbial model to study the climate change impact because they presented layers more developed than those from exploited ponds (). A constant water height of 3 cm was maintained above them by the salt marsh owner to prevent microbial mats from being exposed to the air. Microbial mats were sampled with a core collector (2 cm mat and sediment depth), and transferred while maintaining their integrity, into mesocosms boxes (48 × 33 cm). Their transport to the laboratory was done without water, in the dark and at room temperature to avoid the destruction of the vertical structure.
Four sets of six mesocosms were built, each representing a treatment (Figure 1). The water was distributed independently from the seawater reservoir on each microbial mats via stainless steel taps. This seawater was filtered at 80 μm and passed under UV light to prevent the presence of other marine organisms in the mesocosms system. The salinity was adjusted to that measured in situ [60 practical salinity unit (psu)] by adding salt coming from the salt marshes of the Ré Island.
FIGURE 1
A stable water level was maintained at 3 cm above the mat with a water outlet in front of its inlet. The microbial mats in salt marshes were under a continuous flow-through water depending on the evaporation rate and thus, of the daily temperature making the determination of the water flux difficult. The microbial mats in the mesocosms were under a continuous slow (0.5 L/h; dilution rate estimated around 10–5/h; water turnover in 1h20) flow-through water diffusion simulating a slow water inlet occurring in salt marshes, which ensures water renewal supplying natural nutrients for the development of microbial mats (Figure 1). The microbial mats were illuminated by LED (TOP-24H company by SYLED, France) 12 h a day following the day/night cycle observed during the spring in France (Figure 1). They provided white cold light colour, limiting the evaporation rate, and intensity of 12 ± 1 μmol.photons.m–2.s–1 (corresponding to 874 ± 70 lux) (HOBO Pendant® Temperature/Light Data Logger, Onset Computer Corporation, USA) on the surface of the microbial mats. The LED approximates a solar spectrum according to the manufacturer’s instructions. It is certified like a natural light, used for the cultivation of aquatic plants.
For each treatment, the desired temperature water above the microbial mats was maintained by placing the six containers with the sediment samples in a thermostated water bath with a pump (EHEIM universal 600, Germany) connected to a thermoregulating device (Teco®) (Figure 2).
FIGURE 2
2.2. Simulated scenarios
In order to acclimate the microbial mats to their new environment, a stabilisation period was applied (
A control (C) in which the parameters were not changed, and three treatments were then applied to the microbial mats for seven additional weeks [see figure A in the Supplementary Materials of
Many parameters were monitored to allow the most accurate experimental ecology approach possible, combining physical-chemical, diversity, functional, and biochemical analyses (Table 1). The sampling strategy was described by
TABLE 1
| Sampled material | Analysis | References | |
| Microbial mat | Diversity | ||
| Microbial mat | Cell number | ||
| Microbial mat | EPS | ||
| Surface water | EPS | ||
| Microbial mat | Pigment composition | ||
| Microbial mat | Meiofauna diversity and abundance | ||
| Microbial mat | Bacterial production | ||
| Surface water | Bacterial production | ||
| Surface water | Nutrients | Nitrate, nitrite, ammonium, phosphate | |
| Silicon | |||
List of samplings performed from the mesocosms for the different analyses.
A total of eight sampling points were done after the stabilisation period of 5 weeks. EPS, extracellular polymeric substances.
2.3. DNA extraction and sequencing
Microbial mats subsamples of 0.25 g were done and used for DNA extraction using the DNeasy PowerSoil kit (Qiagen) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The bacterial V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was amplified using the primers 344F (5′-ACGGRAGGCAGCAG-3′) and 801R_m (5′-ACCAGGGTATCTAATCCT-3′) (
2.4. Statistical analyses
The bioinformatic analyses on the DNA raw data obtained after sequencing were performed using the SAMBA (Standardized and Automated MetaBarcoding Analyses workflow) (v3.0.0) workflow written by SeBiMER, the IFREMER’s Bioinformatics Core Facility (
3. Results and discussion
Although the decrease of 0.4 unit of pH (upH) in the seawater reservoir of the acidification treatments was effective, the water pH was not significantly different between the treatments [see figure 2 in
Thus, the mesocosms experiment allowed to change and maintain the conditions as expected (acidification of the water input and water warming on the mesocosms) (
After changing the conditions, the bacterial community composition differed in the acidification treatment 3 weeks after (t44) in comparison to the other treatments (Figure 3) (PERMANOVA, p < 0.05). At the end of the experiment (t58), no more difference was observed between the acidification treatment and the control and warming treatments (Figure 3), suggesting that the bacterial community was resilient. However, the bacterial community composition differed, certainly due to the WA treatment (PERMANOVA, p < 0.05).
FIGURE 3

Comparison of bacterial communities according to the treatments. The Non-metric Multi-dimensional Scaling (NMDS), based on the bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequences, was performed to compare the bacterial communities according to the treatments [control (C), acidification (A), warming (W), and warming and acidification together (WA)] at the beginning (t9), the middle (t44), and the end (t58) of the experiment. The shapes correspond to the replicates (n = 5, except for control n = 4 at t44 and t58).
Indeed, LEfSe analyses on the 1,000 more abundant ASVs revealed bacterial taxa differentially abundant between the four treatments at t58. LEfSe revealed that the acidification was characterized by bacterial biomarkers, genera significantly more abundant in the acidification treatment, belonging to genera affiliated to Rhodobacteraceae and Sulfurimonas (Figure 4). The Sulfurimonas species are widespread in the environment and present large flexibility to colonize various habitats due to their versatile energy metabolisms and their adaptive abilities (
FIGURE 4

Linear discriminant analysis effect (LefSe). Comparison of bacterial communities at t58 in the different treatments [control (C), acidification (A), warming (W), and warming and acidification together (WA)] by linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe). The analysis was performed with the 1,000 more abundant bacterial ASVs of each treatment.
Concomitantly, the increasing of the concentration of bound carbohydrate EPS in the acidification treatment was observed (
To summarize, the acidification treatment affected the photosynthetic communities by changing the pigment proportion of the microbial mat, which probably resulted from a change in either their composition or their metabolisms (Figure 5). Concomitantly, an increase of dissolved oxygen concentration was observed in the water, likely due to an increase of the photosynthesis (Figure 5). The modifications of the conditions generated by the acidification impacted also the sulfur-oxidizers belonging to the Sulfurimonas genus and the Rhodobacteraceae family, which were significantly more abundant in this condition (Figure 4). In contrast, the warming of the water, characterized by an upsurge of salinity due to evaporation (Figure 5), increased the relative abundance of the sulphate-reducers Desulfurimonas (Figure 4). Finally, the warming and acidified treatment resulted in an increase of the water salinity but the dissolved oxygen concentration was not impacted (Figure 5), affecting the sulfur-oxidizers Guyparkeria (Figure 4).
FIGURE 5

Summary of the impact of climate change on microbial mats.
Maintaining microbial mats in mesocosms following an experimental ecology approach allowed to apply conditions to simulate climate change, which is difficult to perform in situ. It also made possible to increase the number of replicates and analysis strengthening the statistical analyses. We were thus able to unveil the relationships between the microorganisms inhabiting the microbial mat and their environment, helpful information to refine the hypotheses of the impact of climate change at the ecosystem level. More generally, the gained information provides new insights to better understand the importance of microbial mats in their environment.
4. Conclusion and perspectives
Climate change is already happening, but it is difficult to determine its effect on complex microbial assemblages, particularly because in situ simulation experiments are difficult to perform. An alternative to overcome this difficulty is to follow an experimental ecology approach maintaining complex microbial community in mesocosm applying conditions simulating predicted climate change conditions. Microbial mats used allowed to unveil microbial structural modification in response to climate change. The mesocosm approach mimics in situ conditions excluding environmental complexity, which was useful to characterize the impact of each changed parameter independently. The total cost of the mesocosms set up was less than 3.000$. The described method in this paper allowed to simulate the change of two parameters, the water pH and temperature, alone and associated. The regular monitoring of several abiotic and biotic parameters and the presence of five replicates led to the complete description of the ecosystem. After applying climate change scenario, several physical-chemical and biological modifications were observed, which provide new insights on microbial mats behaviour. The gained information is useful to understand the impact of climate change at the ecosystem level. Microbial mats, easy to handle and to maintain in mesocosm, are thus precious complex microbial community model to investigate ecological issues of concern for coastal marine ecosystems. Mesocosms experiment can mimic as close as possible the environment but it can’t reproduce all in situ variations and stresses. The method presented could therefore be improved by adding rainfall cycles or seasonal variations. Additional analyses could be performed to specify the functional role of microbial mats in its environment, such as vertical microprofiling of oxygen and sulphur, or a day/night monitoring. This method could be adapted with additional climate change parameters as for example, deoxygenation or the alternance of drought and extreme rainfall. Other issues could also be investigated with this system, such as the impact of oil pollution, metals contamination, organic enrichment, etc. The presented method could also be extended on sediments coming from aquatic environments, as for example estuaries, beach, deep ocean, but also rivers, lakes, by adjusting the sampling method and the parameters applied.
Statements
Data availability statement
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.
Author contributions
CM: formal analysis, methodology, and validation—original draft. RD, CD, and CC-L: funding acquisition, project administration, resources, and supervision. All authors: conceptualization, writing—review and editing, contributed to the article, and approved the submitted version.
Funding
CM was supported by a Ph.D. grant from E2S-UPPA program and the Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine. We thank the funding support from the European programme ERANETMED AQUASALT (NMED-0003-01) and from the ACI politique d’établissement Université de La Rochelle.
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to the salterns owner Michel Jauffrais and all the people who participated in this work. The content of this manuscript is a part of the CM’s thesis.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Publisher’s note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Supplementary material
The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1039658/full#supplementary-material
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Summary
Keywords
global change, ocean warming, ocean acidification, microbial mat, experimental ecology, mesocosms
Citation
Mazière C, Duran R, Dupuy C and Cravo-Laureau C (2023) Microbial mats as model to decipher climate change effect on microbial communities through a mesocosm study. Front. Microbiol. 14:1039658. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1039658
Received
08 September 2022
Accepted
30 May 2023
Published
15 June 2023
Volume
14 - 2023
Edited by
Tony Gutierrez, Heriot-Watt University, United Kingdom
Reviewed by
Andrew Decker Steen, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, United States; Panagiotis D. Dimitriou, University of Crete, Greece
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Copyright
© 2023 Mazière, Duran, Dupuy and Cravo-Laureau.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: C. Mazière, camille.maziere@univ-pau.frC. Cravo-Laureau, cristiana.cravo-laureau@univ-pau.fr
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