Assessing Juvenile Habitats

Microbiome Fingerprints to Identify Nursery Areas

As aquatic animals are constantly exposed to water, the structure and composition of their mucosal microbiota are strongly impacted by the surrounding environment (Dehler et al., 2017). In deed, fish select and enrich their microbiota from the surrounding water during early development and beyond (Vadstein et al., 2018),

Recent evidence has shown significant divergence between the microbial community of gills and surrounding water in numerous fish species [28–30]. It is considered that the microbiota of external epithelial tissue, although influenced by external factors [31, 32], is distinct from environmental populations in part due to host factors, as well as existing microbial interactions

Animal-associated microbiomes often contain hundreds of bacterial or archaeal
species, many of which are hypothesized to contribute to host health, behavior, and
development

In fish, the mucosal surface of the gills may be a relatively unique habitat for
host-associated microbes

The gills of reef fish host a unique and complex microbiome. Analysis of 53 fish
species common to South Pacific reefs confirmed that the microbiomes of the gill and
intestine are distinct from one another and from those of surrounding environmental
reservoirs.