Diazotroph Diversity Associated With Scleractinian Corals and Its Relationships With Environmental Variables in the South China Sea

Coral reef ecosystems cannot operate normally without an effective nitrogen cycle. For oligotrophic coral reef areas, coral-associated diazotrophs are indispensable participants in the nitrogen cycle. However, the distribution of these diazotrophs and the correlation with the physical and chemical variables of the surrounding seawater remain unclear. To this end, 68 scleractinian coral colonies were sampled from 6 coral reef areas with different environmental variables in the South China Sea to investigate the composition of associated diazotrophs based on nifH gene amplification using high-throughput sequencing. The six coral reefs can be clearly divided into two types (fringing reefs and island reefs), are affected by varying degrees of human activities and are located at different latitudes from 9°20’06”N to 22°34’55”N with different seawater temperatures. Alpha- and beta-diversity analyses showed that the distribution of diazotrophs among coral reefs exhibited significant geographical fluctuations (p ≤ 0.05) and non-significant interspecific fluctuations (p > 0.05). The predominant bacterial phyla included Proteobacteria, Chlorobi, Cyanobacteria, and two unclassified phyla. Chlorobi exhibited a relative abundance of 47–96% in coral samples from the high-latitude Daya Bay fringing reef affected by eutrophication. Unclassified bacteria II, with a relative abundance of 28–87%, was found in all coral samples from the midlatitude Luhuitou fringing reef affected by eutrophication. However, unclassified bacteria I and Proteobacteria dominated (>80% relative abundance) in most of the coral samples from the Weizhou Island fringing reef, which is far from land, and three island reefs (Huangyan Island, Xinyi Reef, and Sanjiao Reef) at relatively low latitudes. At the genus level, some core diazotrophs were found in different coral sample groups. In addition, correlation analysis with various environmental variables revealed that the variables were positively or negatively correlated with different diazotrophic genera. Coral-associated diazotrophs were common among coral individuals. However, their composition was closely related to the different environmental variables. These results provide insights into the geographical distribution characteristics of coral-associated diazotrophs and their evolutionary trends in response to environmental change in the South China Sea.