Assessment of Temporal Effects of a Mud Volcanic Eruption on the Bacterial Community and Their Predicted Metabolic Functions in the Mud Volcanic Sites of Niaosong, Southern Taiwan

Abstract

The microbial communities inhabiting mud volcanoes have received more attention due to their noteworthy impact on the global methane cycle. However, the impact of temporal effects of volcanic eruptions on the microbial community’s diversity and functions remain poorly characterized. This study aimed to underpin the temporal variations in the bacterial community’s diversity and PICRUSt-predicted functional profile changes of mud volcanic sites located in southern Taiwan using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The physicochemical analysis showed that the samples were slightly alkaline and had elevated levels of Na+, Cl−, and SO42−. Comparatively, the major and trace element contents were distinctly higher, and tended to be increased in the long-period samples. Alpha diversity metrics revealed that the bacterial diversity and abundance were lesser in the initial period, but increased over time. Instead, day 96 and 418 samples showed reduced bacterial abundance, which may have been due to the dry spell that occurred before each sampling. The initial-period samples were significantly abundant in haloalkaliphilic marine-inhabiting, hydrocarbon-degrading bacterial genera such as Marinobacter, Halomonas, Marinobacterium, and Oceanimonas. Sulfur-reducing bacteria such as Desulfurispirillum and Desulfofarcimen were found dominant in the mid-period samples, whereas the methanogenic archaeon Methanosarcina was abundant in the long-period samples. Unfortunately, heavy precipitation encountered during the mid and long periods may have polluted the volcanic site with animal pathogens such as Desulfofarcimen and Erysipelothrix. The functional prediction results showed that lipid biosynthesis and ubiquinol pathways were significantly abundant in the initial days, and the super pathway of glucose and xylose degradation was rich in the long-period samples. The findings of this study highlighted that the temporal effects of a mud volcanic eruption highly influenced the bacterial diversity, abundance, and functional profiles in our study site.

Peloplasma aerotolerans gen. nov., sp. nov., a Novel Anaerobic Free-Living Mollicute Isolated from a Terrestrial Mud Volcano

“…It has also been suggested that in some TMVs, Acholeplasmataceae spp. may represent a component of dead insects or nematodes' microbiomes [13]. Their predicted role in the community is likely in the fermentation of products from the degradation of organic matter to produce small molecules such as acetate or ethanol, which in turn may be utilized by other members of the TMV microbial community.…”

“…The information on anaerobic organoheterotrophic fermentative microorganisms, isolated from TMVs, is limited to a few reports [11,12]. Representatives of the class Mollicutes have been detected by molecular methods based on a microbial community analysis in several TMVs [13,14]; however, to date, no cultivated Mollicutes from mud volcanoes are known. The Taman Peninsula is among the regions with the most pronounced mud volcanism; the Kerch-Taman mud volcano province includes over 100 active TMVs [15].…”

The Evaluation of Bacterial Abundance and Functional Potentials in the Three Major Watersheds, Located in the Hot Spring Zone of the Tatun Volcano Group Basin, Taiwan

“…The hypervariable V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was amplified using the following set of forward and reverse primers: Pro341F (5′–CCTACGGGNBGCASCAG–3′) and Pro805R (5′-GACTACNVGGGTATCTAATCC-3′) [ 21 ]. The PCR was carried out in a thermocycler (Px2 Thermal Cycler, Thermo, Waltham, MA, USA) with a total volume of 25 μL that contained 3 μL of the template DNA, 2X KAPA HiFi HotStart Ready Mix (12.5 μL), 400 nM of each primer, and ddH 2 O (7.5 μL).…”

Marivirga aurantiaca sp. nov., a halophilic nitrite-reducing bacterium, isolated from intertidal surface sediments

“…The genus Marivirga was first established by Nedashkovskaya et al and is the sole genus of the family Marivirgaceae in the phylum Bacteroidota [1–3]. The members of the genus Marivirga are among the marine bacteria which commonly live in wet habitats [4]. At present, the genus Marivirga encompasses only five species with validly published names, Marivirga atlantica , Marivirga harenae , Marivirga lumbricoides , Marivirga sericea and Marivirga tractuosa [5–8].…”