A reciprocal transplant experiment sheds new light on a classic marine seagrass-algal symbiosis and suggests influence of epiphytic symbiont on seagrass microbiota

In aquatic foundation species, composition and abundance of associated epibionts can change substantially over small spatial distances. Such spatial variation can reflect top-down control by consumers, bottom-up control by abiotic factors or facilitation, or a combination of processes. We used visual and molecular surveys to describe spatial patterns in the abundance and distribution of the epiphytic red macroalga Smithora naiadum in a meadow of the seagrass Zostera marina on the Central Coast of British Columbia. We detected Smithora using 18 S ribosomal RNA molecular marker throughout the seagrass meadow at both interior and edge sites, even in the absence of macroscopic Smithora. We used a reciprocal transplant experiment to test two hypotheses: that patterns in Smithora abundance reflect local environmental conditions, or alternately, that patterns reflect spatial variation in the host plant attributes, microbiota and grazers. Zostera shoots hosted more Smithora at meadow edges relative to meadow interior sites, and shoots with Smithora were associated with distinct invertebrate grazer and bacterial communities relative to shoots 5 m in from the meadow edge without Smithora. Macroscopic Smithora grew on shoots experimentally transplanted from the interior to the meadow edge and shoots hosting Smithora that were transplanted to the interior did not lose Smithora. Our survey and experimental results suggest that presence of macroscopic Smithora blades on Zostera shoots changes the Zostera microbiota. Altogether, we conclude that environmental variation, not host plant attributes or dispersal limitation, affects Smithora colonization on Zostera, and once established, Smithora alters the microbiota on Zostera.