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ToolsWorsley, Sarah F., Lee, Chuen Zhang, Versteegh, Maaike A., Burke, Terry, Komdeur, Jan, Dugdale, Hannah L. and Richardson, David S. (2025) Gut microbiome communities demonstrate fine-scale spatial variation in a closed, island bird population. ISME Communications, 5 (1). ISSN 2730-6151
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Abstract
Environmental variation is a key factor shaping microbial communities in wild animals. However, most studies have focussed on separate populations distributed over large spatial scales. How ecological factors shape inter-individual microbiome variation within a single landscape and host population remains poorly understood. Here, we use dense sampling of individuals in a natural, closed population of Seychelles warblers (Acrocephalus sechellensis) on Cousin Island (<0.7 km diameter, 0.34 km2 total area) to determine whether gut microbiome communities exhibit high-resolution spatial variation over fine scales (average territory area is 0.0023 km2). We identified a small but highly significant quadratic relationship between geographic distance and gut microbiome beta diversity across the island. Microbiome composition initially diverged with increasing geographic distance between territories. However, after ca. >300 m, microbiome composition became increasingly similar amongst individuals situated on different sides of the island. This relationship was robust to the effects of host relatedness, age, and sex. Further analysis showed that microbiome composition differed between individuals inhabiting coastal and inland territories. Warblers in coastal territories harboured greater abundances of marine bacteria and lower abundances of anaerobic taxa commonly linked to host metabolic health, suggesting that exposure to different environmental microbes and variation in host condition (which is lower in coastal territories) could drive spatial patterns of gut microbiome variation across the island. This work demonstrates that host–microbe interactions can be labile even at very fine spatial scales. Such variability may have implications for how species respond to anthropogenic disturbance in wild habitats.
| Item Type: | Article |
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| Additional Information: | Data availability: All sequencing reads have been uploaded to the European Nucleotide Archive (ENA) under the following accession numbers: PRJEB45408 (samples taken in 2017 and 2018), PRJEB47095 (samples taken in 2019 and 2020), and PRJEB67634 (samples taken in 2021 and 2022). The scripts and metadata to reproduce all analyses and figures can be accessed via the GitHub repository (https://github.com/Seychelle-Warbler-Project). Funding: This study was funded by a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) NBAF Pilot Scheme Grant (NBAF1092) awarded to D.S.R., a NERC grant (NE/S010939/1) awarded to D.S.R. and H.L.D., and a University of Groningen Data Science Grant 2020 awarded to J.K. and H.L.D. S.F.W. was also funded by a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship (ECF-2023-433). H.L.D. was supported by a Rosalind Franklin Fellowship from the University of Groningen. C.Z.L. was supported by the UKRI BBSRC Norwich Research Park Biosciences Doctoral Training Partnership (Grant number BB/T008717/1). |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | acrocephalus sechellensis,biogeography,environmental gradients,gut microbiome,microbial ecology,microbiology,sdg 14 - life below water ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2400/2404 |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Science > School of Biological Sciences |
| UEA Research Groups: | Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Organisms and the Environment Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 14 Nov 2025 16:30 |
| Last Modified: | 17 Nov 2025 01:27 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/100999 |
| DOI: | 10.1093/ismeco/ycaf138 |
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