Biomass addition alters community assembly in ultrafiltration membrane biofilms

Freshwater biofilms assemble from a pool of rare water column genotypes. Random density fluctuations and temporal species turnover of functionally equivalent potential colonizers result in compositional variability of newly formed biofilm communities. We hypothesized that stronger environmental filtering as induced by enhanced substrate levels might reduce the impact of a locally variable pool of colonizers and instead select for more universal habitat specialists. Our model were heterotrophic biofilms that form on membranes during gravity-driven ultrafiltration of lake water. In four separate experiments, biomass of the cyanobacterium Microcystis was added to the feed water of one set of treatments (BM) and the resulting biofilm communities were compared to unamended controls (CTRL). Biomass addition led to a significant shift of community assembly processes: Replicate BM biofilms were more similar to each other than by chance in 3 of 4 experiments, whereas the opposite was the case for CTRL communities. Moreover, BM communities were more stochastically assembled across experiments from a common ‘regional’ pool of biofilm colonizers, whereas the composition of CTRL communities was mainly determined by experiment-specific ‘local’ genotypes. Interestingly, community assembly processes were also related to both, physiology (aerobic vs. anaerobic lifestyle) and the phylogenetic affiliation of biofilm bacteria.