Microbial Networks Reveal the Structure of Water Microbial Communities in Kalamaili Mountain Ungulate Nature Reserve

Abstract

Water microorganisms contribute to the key components of ecosystems in dryland waters, which are extremely important for wildlife. However, the distribution patterns of water microbes across different basal water sources are still largely unknown. This study was conducted to compare microorganisms in the water bodies of different types of water sources in the Kalamaili Mountain Ungulate Nature Reserve in China. Bioinformatic analysis revealed that the undirected microbial co-existence network consisted of 15 main modules referring to different water sources, which indicated specific molecular co-existence relationships. It was found that the most dominant phyla (namely Proteobacteria, Patescibacteria, Firmicutes, Bacteroidota, and Actinobacteriota) of the molecular ecological network shared the same structures as the microbial community, which justified the construction of the network via a random network formation. Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) based on Bray–Curtis distances revealed that there were still considerable variations among different habitats, showing separate sample clusters. Additionally, the different topological roles of subnetworks trimmed to a uniform size indicated different co-existence patterns in the microbiome. The artificially recharged water from concrete pond substrate (ARC) subnetworks had a relatively discrete co-occurrence, while the natural water sources (NRE) and artificially recharged water from earthen pond substrate (ARE) groups were more compact with giant modules. The NRE and ARE groups were also richer in microbial composition and had a higher number of species with low abundance. Consequently, concrete substrates may contribute to dysfunction in water microbiomes. Moreover, the functional diversity of the NRE and ARE groups is due to more intra-module connections and more inter-module connections, indirectly leading to a stable function resilient to external environmental influences. In conclusion, the microecology of the NRE was more stable than that of the concrete substrate, and artificial transportation had less effect on the microbial community.

Biodeterioration and Chemical Corrosion of Concrete in the Marine Environment: Too Complex for Prediction

“…[41] found that the standard, unmodified cement in artificial reefs showed lower biodiversity than the other two types of cement, which contained bioactive materials. The lower microbial diversity on its surface indicates the slightly toxic nature of this cement to marine bacteria, as previously shown for bacteria in groundwater stored in concrete or earthen ponds, the former being lower in diversity and abundance [114]. Indeed, concrete has been described as having especially deleterious consequences on biodiversity in all aquatic ecosystems [115]; this concords with research suggesting that a relatively mature microbial biofilm on concrete in the marine environment is somewhat generic, differing little from normal structural concrete composition [39][40][41].…”