The merits of using the arcsine transformation prior to analyzing proportion data is being questioned in the published literature. While arcsine transformation stabilizes variance and normalizes proportional data, there are several reasons why this method can be problematic. An alternative analysis proposed to address the problems with normality of proportion data is the Generalized Linear Model logistic regression analysis. We compared the frequency of use of arcsine through time in ten leading biological journals. We tested the effectiveness of both arcsine transformation and logistic regression in making the residuals meet the assumptions of normality, homogeneity and independence by noting changes in the residual plots and changes in the p-value and significance decision compared to the linear regression on untransformed data using 40 data sets from the published literature. In the leading biological journals there is an obvious trend of an increased use of arcsine transformation on percentage data starting around the 1970s. Logistic regression was able to improve the residuals' normality, homogeneity and independence more often than arcsine. The arcsine transformation increased and decreased p values at almost the same rate. In comparison, logistic regression increased the p-value in 86% of the data sets, often resulting in a change in significance. The results suggest that logistic regression should be used as an alternative to the arcsine transformation in biological analysis.

Global climate change scenarios predict that lake water temperatures will increase up to 4 °C and extreme weather events, such as heat waves and large temperature fluctuations, will occur more frequently. Such changes may result in the increase of aquatic litter decomposition and on shifts in diversity and structure of bacteria communities in this period. We designed a two-month mesocosm experiment to explore how constant (+4 °C than ambient temperature) and variable (randomly +0~8 °C than ambient temperature) warming treatment will affect the submerged macrophyte litter decomposition process. Our data suggests that warming treatments may accelerate the decomposition of submerged macrophyte litter in shallow lake ecosystems, and increase the diversity of decomposition-related bacteria with community composition changed the relative abundance of Proteobacteria, especially members of Alphaproteobacteria increased while that of Firmicutes (mainly Bacillus) decreased.

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Extreme climatic events, such as heat wave and large temperature fluctuations, are predicted to increase in frequency and intensity during the next hundred years, which may rapidly alter the composition and function of lake bacterial communities. Here, we conducted a year-long experiment to explore the effect of warming on bacterial metabolic function of lake water and sediment. Predictions of the metabolic capabilities of these communities were performed with FAPROTAX using 16S rRNA sequencing data. The results indicated that the increase in temperature changed the structure of bacterial metabolic functional groups in water and sediment. During periods of low temperature, the carbon degradation pathway decreased, and the synthesis pathway increased, under the stimulation of warming, especially under the conditions temperature fluctuation. We also observed that nitrogen fixation ability was especially important in the warming treatments during the summer season. However, an elevated temperature significantly led to reduced nitrogen fixation abilities in winter. Compared with the water column, the most predominant functional groups of nitrogen cycle in sediment were nitrite oxidation and nitrification. Variable warming significantly promoted nitrite oxidation and nitrification function in winter, and constant warming was significantly inhibited in spring, with control in sediments. Co-occurrence network results showed that warming, especially variable warming, made microbial co-occurrence networks larger, more connected and less modular, and eventually functional groups in the water column and sediment cooperated to resist warming. We concluded that warming changed bacterial functional potentials important to the biogeochemical cycling in the experimental mesocosms in winter and spring with low temperature. The effect of different bacteria metabolism functions in water column and sediment may change the carbon and nitrogen fluxes in aquatic ecosystems. In conclusion, the coupling response between different bacterial metabolic functions in water and sediment may improve the ability to mitigate climate change.

Increased decomposition rates in shallow lakes with global warming might increase the release of atmospheric greenhouse gases, thereby producing positive feedback for global warming. However, how climate warming affects litter decomposition is still unclear in lake ecosystems. Here, we tested the effects of constant and variable warming on the bacterial metabolic potential of typically submerged macrophyte (Potamogeton crispus L.) litters during decomposition in 18 mesocosms (2500 L each). The results showed that warming reduced main chemoheterotrophic metabolic potential but promoted methylotrophy metabolism, which means that further warming may alter methane-cycling microbial metabolism. The nitrate reduction function was inhibited under warming treatments, and nitrogen fixation capability significantly increased under variable warming in summer. The changes in dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, conductivity and ammonium nitrogen driven by warming are the main environmental factors affecting the bacteria’s metabolic potential. The effects of warming and environmental factors on fermentation, nitrate reduction and ammonification capabilities in stem and leaf litter were different, and the bacterial potential in the stem litter were more strongly responsive to environmental factors. These findings suggest that warming may considerably alter bacterial metabolic potential in macrophyte litter, contributing to long-term positive feedback between the C and N cycle and climate.