- 1Colorado State University, Fort Collins, United States of America
- *A full list of authors appears at the end of the abstract
Predicting elemental cycles and maintaining water quality under increasing anthropogenic influence requires knowledge of the spatial drivers of river microbiomes. However, understanding of the core microbial processes governing river biogeochemistry is hindered by a lack of genome-resolved functional insights and sampling across multiple rivers. Here we used a community science effort to accelerate the sampling, sequencing and genome-resolved analyses of river microbiomes to create the Genome Resolved Open Watersheds database (GROWdb). GROWdb profiles the identity, distribution, function and expression of microbial genomes across river surface waters covering 90% of United States watersheds. Specifically, GROWdb encompasses microbial lineages from 27 phyla, including novel members from 10 families and 128 genera, and defines the core river microbiome at the genome level. GROWdb analyses coupled to extensive geospatial information reveals local and regional drivers of microbial community structuring, while also presenting foundational hypotheses about ecosystem function. Building on the previously conceived River Continuum Concept, we layer on microbial functional trait expression, which suggests that the structure and function of river microbiomes is predictable. We make GROWdb available through various collaborative cyberinfrastructures, so that it can be widely accessed across disciplines for watershed predictive modelling and microbiome-based management practices.
Mikayla A. Borton1, Bridget B. McGivern1, Kaela Amundson1, Kathryn R. Willi2, Ben J. Woodcroft3, Annika C. Mosier4, Derick M. Singleton4, Ted Bambakidis5, Aaron Pelly6, Filipe Liu7, Janaka N. Edirisinghe7, José P. Faria7, Ikaia Leleiwi1, Rebecca A. Daly1, Amy E. Goldman8, Michael J. Wilkins1, Ed K. Hall2, Christa Pennacchio9, Simon Roux9,10, Emiley A. Eloe-Fadrosh9,10, Stephen P. Good11, Matthew B. Sullivan12, Christopher S. Henry7, Elisha M. Wood-Charlson10, Matthew R.V. Ross2, Christopher S. Miller4, Byron C. Crump11, James C. Stegen6,13, Kelly C. Wrighton1 1 Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA 2 Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA 3 Centre for Microbiome Research, School of Biomedical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Translational Research Institute, Woolloongabba, Australia 4 Department of Integrative Biology, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, CO, USA 5 Department of Microbiology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, United States 6 Terrestrial and Aquatic Integration, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA 7 Mathematics and Computer Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, USA 8 Earth Systems Science Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA 9 DOE Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA 10 Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA 11 College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA 12 Department of Microbiology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA 13 School of the Environment, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA
How to cite: Borton, M. and the GROWdb USA: Drops to Data: Harnessing Participatory Science to Decode Aquatic Microbiomes Across the United States, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-14131, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-14131, 2026.
