Diverse groups of fungi are associated with plastics in the surface waters of the Western South Atlantic and the Antarctic Peninsula (2020)
Journal Article
Lacerda, A., Proietti, M., Secchi, E., & Taylor, J. (2020). Diverse groups of fungi are associated with plastics in the surface waters of the Western South Atlantic and the Antarctic Peninsula. Molecular Ecology, 29(10), 1903-1918. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.15444

Marine plastic pollution has a range of negative impacts for biota and the colonization of plastics in the marine environment by microorganisms may have significant ecological impacts. However, data on epiplastic organisms, particularly fungi, is sti... Read More about Diverse groups of fungi are associated with plastics in the surface waters of the Western South Atlantic and the Antarctic Peninsula.

Diet in the driving seat: natural diet-immunity-microbiome interactions in wild fish (2019)
Journal Article
Friberg, I., Taylor, J., & Jackson, J. (2019). Diet in the driving seat: natural diet-immunity-microbiome interactions in wild fish. Frontiers in Immunology, 10(243), https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2019.00243

Natural interactions between the diet, microbiome and immunity are largely unstudied. Here we employ wild three-spined sticklebacks as a model, combining field observations with complementary experimental manipulations of diet designed to mimic sea... Read More about Diet in the driving seat: natural diet-immunity-microbiome interactions in wild fish.

Active bacterioplankton community response to dissolved ‘free’ deoxyribonucleic acid (dDNA) in surface coastal marine waters (2018)
Journal Article
Taylor, J., Bird, K., Widdicome, C., & Cunliffe, M. (2018). Active bacterioplankton community response to dissolved ‘free’ deoxyribonucleic acid (dDNA) in surface coastal marine waters. FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 94(10), https://doi.org/10.1093/femsec/fiy132

Seawater contains dissolved ‘free’ DNA (dDNA) that is part of a larger <0.2 μm pool of DNA (D-DNA) including viruses and uncharacterised bound DNA. Previous studies have shown that bacterioplankton readily degrade dDNA and culture-based approaches... Read More about Active bacterioplankton community response to dissolved ‘free’ deoxyribonucleic acid (dDNA) in surface coastal marine waters.

Partitioning of soil phosphorus among arbuscular and ectomycorrhizal trees in tropical and subtropical forests (2018)
Journal Article
Liu, X., Burslem, D., Taylor, J., Taylor, A., Khoo, E., Majalap-Lee, N., …Johnson, D. (2018). Partitioning of soil phosphorus among arbuscular and ectomycorrhizal trees in tropical and subtropical forests. Ecology Letters, 21(5), 713-723. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12939

Partitioning of soil phosphorus (P) pools has been proposed as a key mechanism maintaining plant diversity, but experimental support is lacking. Here, we provided different chemical forms of P to 15 tree species with contrasting root symbiotic relati... Read More about Partitioning of soil phosphorus among arbuscular and ectomycorrhizal trees in tropical and subtropical forests.

Expanding known dinoflagellate distributions : investigations of slurry cultures from Caspian Sea sediment (2017)
Journal Article
Lewis, J., Taylor, J., Neale, K., & Leroy, S. (2017). Expanding known dinoflagellate distributions : investigations of slurry cultures from Caspian Sea sediment. Botanica Marina, 61(1), 21-31. https://doi.org/10.1515/bot-2017-0041

To investigate the disparity between plankton and cyst records, sediment slurry cultures were used to isolate the motile stage of dinoflagellates from Caspian Sea sediment. This has resulted in new records for this area of Kryptoperidinium foliaceum,... Read More about Expanding known dinoflagellate distributions : investigations of slurry cultures from Caspian Sea sediment.

Multi-year assessment of coastal planktonic fungi reveals environmental drivers of diversity and abundance (2016)
Journal Article
Taylor, J., & Cunliffe, M. (2016). Multi-year assessment of coastal planktonic fungi reveals environmental drivers of diversity and abundance. ISME Journal, 10, 2118-2128. https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2016.24

Mycoplankton have so far been a neglected component of pelagic marine ecosystems, having been poorly studied relative to other plankton groups. Currently, there is a lack of understanding of how mycoplankton diversity changes through time, and the id... Read More about Multi-year assessment of coastal planktonic fungi reveals environmental drivers of diversity and abundance.

Seasonal microbial community dynamics correlate with phytoplankton-derived polysaccharides in surface coastal waters (2013)
Journal Article
Taylor, J., Cottingham, S., Billinge, J., & Cunliffe, M. (2013). Seasonal microbial community dynamics correlate with phytoplankton-derived polysaccharides in surface coastal waters. ISME Journal, 8, 245-248. https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2013.178

Phytoplankton produce large amounts of polysaccharide gel material known as transparent exopolymer particles (TEP). We investigated the potential links between phytoplankton-derived TEP and microbial community structure in the sea surface microlayer... Read More about Seasonal microbial community dynamics correlate with phytoplankton-derived polysaccharides in surface coastal waters.