Temperature had a comparatively smaller, but detectable, effect on the gut microbiome. Microbial changes were driven by differences in the main components of the diet across seasons: in rainier periods, the gut was dominated by cellulolytic/fermentative bacteria that specialized in digesting grass, while during dry periods the gut was dominated by bacteria that break down starches found in underground plant parts. The gelada gut microbiome composition covaried with rainfall and temperature in a pattern that suggests distinct responses to dietary and thermoregulatory challenges. We tested how proxies of food availability (rainfall) and thermoregulatory stress (temperature) predicted gut microbiome composition of geladas. Because geladas live in a cold, high-altitude environment and have a low-quality grass-based diet, they face extreme thermoregulatory and energetic constraints. Here, we generated the largest wild nonhuman primate gut microbiome dataset to date to identify the environmental drivers of gut microbial diversity and function in 758 samples collected from wild Ethiopian geladas ( Theropithecus gelada). However, outside of dietary shifts, other potential environmental drivers of gut microbial composition have rarely been investigated, particularly in organisms living in their natural environments. Adaptive shifts in gut microbiome composition are one route by which animals adapt to seasonal changes in food availability and diet.
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