Influence of hydropower stations on the water microbiota in the downstream of Jinsha River, China

Abstract

Construction of hydropower stations has been an important approach to meet China’s increasing power demand, but the impact of construction of hydropower stations on river microbiota is not fully understood. To evaluate this, the microbial composition from 18 sampling sites in the downstream of Jinsha River of China, upstream and downstream of two completed and two under-construction hydropower stations, were analyzed using high-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Three independent samples from each site were analyzed. A total of 18,683 OTUs from 1,350 genera were identified at 97% sequence similarity. Our results showed that the completion of hydropower stations would significantly increase the relative abundances of Acidobacteria, Chlorobi, Chloroflexi, Cyanobacteria, Nitrospirae, and Planctomycetes, especially the relative abundance of Synechococcus dOTUs and thus increase the risk of algal blooms. PCA based on all KEGG pathways and the significantly different KEGG pathways showed the predicted metabolic characteristics of the water microbiota by PICRUSt in the activated hydropower station group were significant difference to the other groups. Results from canonical correspondence analysis showed that water temperature and dissolved oxygen had significant effects on microbiota composition. These results are important for assessing the impact of hydropower stations on river microbiota and their potential environmental risks.

Bacterial Diversity and Community in Regional Water Microbiota between Different Towns in World’s Longevity Township Jiaoling, China

“…It is an important part of the freshwater ecosystem and plays an important role in nutrient metabolism and the energy cycle [59]. Interestingly, certain species were only dominant in specific areas, which may be closely related to the geographical environment [60][61][62]. This finding might emphasize the influence of the geographical conditions on the composition of the local microbial community.…”

Effect of 6-Methoxybenzoxazolinone on the Cecal Microbiota of Adult Male Brandt’s Vole

“…The biological functions of the cecal bacterial community were predicted and annotated using the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway database along with the PICRUSt program on the Huttenhower Lab server (see text footnote 3) based on the result of the 16S rRNA gene sequencing ( Chen et al, 2020 ).…”

Filtering Effect of Rhinogobio cylindricus Gut Microbiota Relieved Influence of the Three Gorges Dam on the Gut Microbiota Composition

“…Microbial DNA in the water and gut content samples was extracted using a PowerSoil DNA isolation kit (QIAGEN, Hilden, Germany), as previously described [3,15]. The V4-V5 hypervariable region of the prokaryotic 16S rRNA gene was amplified using the primers 515F and 909R, as previously described [3,24,25].…”

“…Microbial DNA in the water and gut content samples was extracted using a PowerSoil DNA isolation kit (QIAGEN, Hilden, Germany), as previously described [3,15]. The V4-V5 hypervariable region of the prokaryotic 16S rRNA gene was amplified using the primers 515F and 909R, as previously described [3,24,25]. The polymerase chain reaction was performed, and the amplicons were sequenced using a HiSeq system at Guangdong Meilikang Bio-Science, Ltd. (Dongguan, China), as previously described [3,15].…”

“…Dams also regulate the flow and prevent downstream flooding [2]. However, the construction of dams can greatly impact the surrounding environment and its inhabitants, e.g., alter the hydrology, water environment, and aquatic habitats, which result in obvious changes to the structure and function of the river ecosystem [2][3][4]. For example, our recent study showed that the construction of dams significantly altered the composition of microbiota in the upstream water and significantly increased the relative abundance of Cyanobacteria, especially harmful cyanobacteria blooms from the genus Synechococcus, but significantly decreased the relative abundance of Proteobacteria [3].…”