Extended Ecological Restoration of Bacterial Communities in the Godavari River During the COVID-19 Lockdown Period: a Spatiotemporal Meta-analysis

Abstract

The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has had major impact on human health worldwide. Whilst national and international COVID-19 lockdown and travel restriction measures have had widespread negative impact on economies and mental health, they may have beneficial effect on the environment, reducing air and water pollution. Mass bathing events (MBE) also known as Kumbh Mela are known to cause perturbations of the ecosystem affecting resilient bacterial populations within water of rivers in India. Lockdowns and travel restrictions provide a unique opportunity to evaluate the impact of minimum anthropogenic activity on the river water ecosystem and changes in bacterial populations including antibiotic-resistant strains. We performed a spatiotemporal meta-analysis of bacterial communities of the Godavari River, India. Targeted metagenomics revealed a 0.87-fold increase in the bacterial diversity during the restricted activity of lockdown. A significant increase in the resilient phyla, viz. Proteobacteria (70.6%), Bacteroidetes (22.5%), Verrucomicrobia (1.8%), Actinobacteria (1.2%) and Cyanobacteria (1.1%), was observed. There was minimal incorporation of allochthonous bacterial communities of human origin. Functional profiling using imputed metagenomics showed reduction in infection and drug resistance genes by − 0.71-fold and − 0.64-fold, respectively. These observations may collectively indicate the positive implications of COVID-19 lockdown measures which restrict MBE, allowing restoration of the river ecosystem and minimise the associated public health risk. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00248-021-01781-0.

Evidence of Covid-19 lockdown effects on riverine dissolved organic matter dynamics provides a proof-of-concept for needed regulations of anthropogenic emissions

“…Anomalies of Chl-a concentration, which represents the most direct indicator of phytoplankton biomass in coastal environments, were likely connected to riverine inputs ( Colella et al, 2016 ). An increase in bacterial diversity due to the lockdown restrictions has been observed also in the Godavari River (India, Jani et al, 2021 ). In both the riverine and coastal environment, a reduction of DOM, in particular of humic-like substances, will reduce the ability of DOM to complex pollutants and metals, leading to lower bioavailability of these substances.…”

“…Anomalies of Chl-a concentration, which represents the most direct indicator of phytoplankton biomass in coastal environments, were likely connected to riverine inputs ( Colella et al, 2016 ). An increase in bacterial diversity due to the lockdown restrictions has been observed also in the Godavari River (India, Jani et al, 2021 ).…”

“…( Elsaid et al, 2021 , and references therein) was observed. In over polluted rivers, an improvement of the Water Quality Indexes ( Dutta et al, 2020 ; Patel et al, 2020 ), the decrease of heavy metal loads ( Shukla et al, 2021 ), and the restoration of natural bacterial communities ( Jani et al, 2021 ) were also reported. Since DOM dynamics is driven by the interaction of several factors, it shows a non-linear response to changes in environmental forcing and human pressure.…”

Bacterial diversity in the aquatic system in India based on metagenome analysis—a critical review

“…The impact of anthropogenic activity on the river water ecosystem of the Godavari river and spatiotemporal meta-analysis of bacterial communities and changes in bacterial populations during the COVID-19 lockdown period was evaluated by Jani et al ( 2021 ). There was minimal incorporation of allochthonous bacterial communities of human origin during this lockdown period compared to previous time and reduced infection and drug resistance genes during this lockdown period (Jani et al 2021 ). Cooum river unraveled the taxonomic classification of diverse microbes, including Macellibacteroides fermentans, Arcobacter bivolvorium , Arcobacter butzleri , Methanothrix soenhngeii , and Bacteroides graminisolvens.…”

Easy Access to Antibiotics; Spread of Antimicrobial Resistance and Implementation of One Health Approach in India

“…India is a country of festivals involving several cultural events during the year, one such event is the Kumbh Mela. It is considered as the world’s largest mass gathering event attracting millions of pilgrims for the duration of three months [ 45 , 46 ]. The event involves a ritual bathing in the river, wherein bathing by the millions of attendees may have serious consequences on the river as well as on public health.…”