Cross-domain microbiome legacy of a natural Phaeocystis globosa bloom in eutrophic coastal waters: a framework for monitoring bloom onset, collapse, and post-bloom recovery.

A natural Phaeocystis globosa bloom causes lasting changes in bacterial and microeukaryotic communities that do not fully revert within 7 months in coastal waters.

• Why it matters: Understanding how harmful algal blooms impact water quality recovery is crucial for effective monitoring and management of coastal ecosystems, as traditional indicators may not reflect true recovery.
• What they did: The study analyzed 105 water samples from five sites using 16S and 18S rRNA sequencing, qPCR, community assembly inference, and network analysis to track microbial succession and functional shifts during and after the bloom.
• The result: Bacterial communities showed coherent succession with increased stochasticity during the bloom and partial recovery afterward, while microeukaryotic communities maintained site-specific structures; a cross-domain framework integrating taxa, community indices, and network complexity is proposed for monitoring bloom dynamics.