Characteristics of planktonic and sediment bacterial communities in a heavily polluted urban river

Abstract

Urban rivers represent a unique ecosystem in which pollution occurs regularly, altering the biogeochemical characteristics of waterbodies and sediments. However, little is presently known about the spatiotemporal patterns of planktonic and sediment bacterial community diversities and compositions in urban rivers. Herein, Illumina MiSeq high-throughput sequencing was performed to reveal the spatiotemporal dynamics of bacterial populations in Liangtan River, a heavily polluted urban river in Chongqing City (China). The results showed the richness and diversity of sediment bacteria were significantly higher than those of planktonic bacteria, whereas a strong overlap (46.7%) in OTUs was identified between water and sediment samples. Bacterial community composition remarkably differed in waters and sediments. Planktonic bacterial communities were dominated by Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Cyanobacteria and Actinobacteria, while sediment bacterial communities mainly included Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi and Bacteroidetes. Additionally, several taxonomic groups of potential bacterial pathogens showed an increasing trend in water and sediment samples from residential and industrial areas (RI). Variation partition analysis (VPA) indicated that temperature and nutrient were identified as the main drivers determining the planktonic and sediment bacterial assemblages. These results highlight that bacterial communities in the polluted urban river exhibit spatiotemporal variation due to the combined influence of environmental factors associated with sewage discharge and hydropower dams.

Complex compositional and cellular response of river sediment microbiomes to multiple anthropogenic stressors

“…Given the fact that rivers and streams are substantially involved in carbon dioxide burial from terrestrial input (0.3 Pg C yr -1 ; Battin et al, 2023) and diatoms account for approximately 20% of total primary production on Earth (Field et al, 1998; Tréguer et al, 2018), we posit that decreased flow velocity of rivers may negatively impact primary production which is, however, a vital ecosystem service in the context of climate change (river gross primary production 0.07 Pg C yr -1 ; Battin et al, 2023). Thus, allowing a river to have natural flow variations, with both fast and slow flowing sections, could greatly improve provision of essential ecosystem functions (Hilderbrand et al, 2023; Huang et al, 2021) and recovery from stressed phases.…”

Determinants and Assembly Mechanism of Bacterial Community Structure in Ningxia Section of the Yellow River

“…At the same time, they provide irreplaceable service functions for nature and society, determining biodiversity, ecosystem productivity, and human health and wellbeing in the region [ 4 ]. Nevertheless, the ecological functions of river networks are not static, and in the context of climate change and increased human activity, the ecological functions of some rivers have already been affected [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ], the ecological functions they are burdened with need to be re-evaluated as soon as possible. Bacteria are considered to be an essential component of riverine ecosystems, not only as contributors to nutrient and energy flows [ 9 , 10 ], but also as significant players in the biogeochemical processes and ecosystem functions of river networks [ 11 ].…”

Evaluation of the Influence of Habitat Heterogeneity and Human Activities on the Distribution of Microbial Diversity in a High Elevation Drop River

“…[7][8][9][10]. Many international studies on river microorganisms using high-throughput sequencing have focused on environmental sciences ecology, public environmental health, water resources, and infectious diseases [11][12][13][14]. As well as being one of the most important ecosystem types, rivers are the main channel of the biosphere material cycle, through which a large number of pollutants and nutrients are degraded and transported [15] (Tang et al, 2002).…”