[Bacterial communities and relative abundances of the pathogen Vibrio coralliilyticus in feces of coral reef fish] - Bacterial communities and relative abundances of the pathogen Vibrio coralliilyticus in feces of coral reef fish collected on the north shore of Mo’orea, French Polynesia, Oct 2020 (CAREER: Testing the effects of predator-derived feces on host symbiont acquisition and health)

To test how microbial communities in fish feces may affect coral reef health, we collected fecal samples from ten fish species, ranging from obligate corallivore to grazer/detritivore. Additionally, samples of corals, algae, sediments, and seawater were collected to test whether bacterial taxa in these samples were also represented in fish feces (N = 5-14 per fish, coral, or algae species/genus).

All collections were conducted in October 2020 from the back reef (1-2 m depth) and fore reef (5-10 m depth) in Moorea, between LTER sites 1 and 2 of the Moorea Coral Reef (MCR) Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site. We conducted bacterial 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding on all samples and found that fecal communities of bacteria differed among fish guilds (obligate corallivores, facultative corallivores, grazer/detritivores).