ECOLOGICAL PROCESSES UNDERPINNING MICROBIAL ASSEMBLY IN STORMWATER SEDIMENTS

Abstract

Stormwater sediments are essential reservoirs of microbial diversity and providers of diverse ecosystem services. Given an increased focus on Blue-Green infrastructure in engineered environments, a model naturalised stormwater ecosystem was studied to investigate community associations and assembly. This study has tracked sources from the green infrastructure that dominate community composition in sediments through propagule pressure. Both environmental filtering and biotic interactions were major drivers for community differences. Keystone candidates were revealed by ecological networks to be the main drivers of biotic interactions in species sorting during community assembly. Finally, homogenising mechanisms were identified as dominant ecological processes at the sediment habitat level. These findings can be used in habitat engineering of urban parks to increase community heterogeneity and deliver more diverse ecosystem services.