Restructuring of the Aquatic Bacterial Community by Hydric Dynamics Associated with Superstorm Sandy

Abstract

Bacterial community composition and longitudinal fluctuations were monitored in a riverine system during and after Superstorm Sandy to better characterize inter-and intracommunity responses associated with the disturbance associated with a 100-year storm event. High-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene was used to assess microbial community structure within water samples from Muddy Creek Run, a second-order stream in Huntingdon, PA, at 12 different time points during the storm event (29 October to 3 November 2012) and under seasonally matched baseline conditions. High-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene was used to track changes in bacterial community structure and divergence during and after Superstorm Sandy. Bacterial community dynamics were correlated to measured physicochemical parameters and fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) concentrations. Bioinformatics analyses of 2.1 million 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed a significant increase in bacterial diversity in samples taken during peak discharge of the storm. Beta-diversity analyses revealed longitudinal shifts in the bacterial community structure. Successional changes were observed, in which Betaproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria decreased in 16S rRNA gene relative abundance, while the relative abundance of members of the Firmicutes increased. Furthermore, 16S rRNA gene sequences matching pathogenic bacteria, including strains of Legionella, Campylobacter, Arcobacter, and Helicobacter, as well as bacteria of fecal origin (e.g., Bacteroides), exhibited an increase in abundance after peak discharge of the storm. This study revealed a significant restructuring of in-stream bacterial community structure associated with hydric dynamics of a storm event. IMPORTANCEIn order to better understand the microbial risks associated with freshwater environments during a storm event, a more comprehensive understanding of the variations in aquatic bacterial diversity is warranted. This study investigated the bacterial communities during and after Superstorm Sandy to provide fine time point resolution of dynamic changes in bacterial composition. This study adds to the current literature by revealing the variation in bacterial community structure during the course of a storm. This study employed high-throughput DNA sequencing, which generated a deep analysis of inter-and intracommunity responses during a significant storm event. This study has highlighted the utility of applying high-throughput sequencing for water quality monitoring purposes, as this approach enabled a more comprehensive investigation of the bacterial community structure. Altogether, these data suggest a drastic restructuring of the stream bacterial community during a storm event and highlight the potential of high-throughput sequencing approaches for assessing the microbiological quality of our environment. M ore than 12,000 water bodies in the United States are considered to be impaired by fecal indicator bacteria (FIB), due to both point and nonpoint sources of pollution, according t...

Storm Events Restructured Bacterial Community and Their Biogeochemical Potentials

“…The fluctuations of major bacterial groups and functional genes during two large storm events (shown by PCR‐DGGE, high throughput sequencing, and qPCR in the results) indicated that changes occurred during the storms, but the differences in bacterial communities were likely due to shifts in the relative abundance of species rather than variation in presence/absence. Similar observations were made at Muddy Creek Run, a second‐order stream in Huntingdon, PA, during Super Storm Sandy (Ulrich et al, ). To my knowledge, this study is the first of kind investigating bacterial community shifts in two sequential storm events with couple days apart.…”

“…These allochthonous particulate organic sources serve as a critical energy supply for biota living in the streams and therefore contribute to ecosystem metabolism and energy flow within aquatic food webs (Tank et al, ). In addition to the massive amount of particulate materials, the storm events also mobilize abundant particle‐associated microorganisms, and “mixing and seeding” of these “new” microorganisms could lead to significant changes on the composition and distribution of microorganisms in receiving streams (Staley et al, ; Ulrich et al, ).…”

“…Long‐term monitoring data in Upper Mississippi River showed that along with temperature and nutrient concentrations, rainfall was one of the major driving factors in shaping the bacterial community structure (Staley et al, ). Following Superstorm Sandy, Ulrich et al () demonstrated that large storm events significantly restructured in‐stream bacterial communities. However, high heterogeneity and variability in water column microbiota (Staley et al, ) highlighted the need for more detailed investigations on the temporal variation of aquatic microbial composition during a storm event.…”

A seasonal study of a passive abandoned coalmine drainage remediation system reveals three distinct zones of contaminant levels and microbial communities

“…The V4 region of the 16s rrn genes from bacterial DNAs were amplified by Illumina tag (itag) PCR using the 515F forward primer and the Illumina 806R reverse barcoded primer (16S Illumina Amplicon Protocol, http://www.earthmicrobiome.org). Individual barcoded samples were prepared and sequenced (Ulrich et al., ) by Wright Labs (Huntingdon, PA).…”

Spatial Modelling of Bacterial Diversity over the Selected Regions in Bangladesh by Next-Generation Sequencing: Role of Water Temperature

“…Microbiota are the base of biogeochemical cycles [9] and act as a pollutant biodegradation, so it is essential to assess a microbial community structure's changing nature in aquatic systems. The structures of bacterial communities are affected by the hydrodynamics of storm events [10], physiochemical parameters, longitudinal distance, upstream inputs affects and fecal indicator bacteria concentrations. Further, bacterivory, substrate availability, variation in hydrological and nutrient conditions [11], land use changes, distance from the pristine headwaters, rainfall and pH [12] influence the structure of microbial communities in riverine environments.…”