scholarly journals Bacterial diversity and biogeochemistry of different chemosynthetic habitats of the REGAB cold seep (West African margin, 3160 m water depth)

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 8337-8385 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Pop Ristova ◽  
F. Wenzhöfer ◽  
A. Ramette ◽  
M. Zabel ◽  
D. Fischer ◽  
...  

Abstract. The giant pockmark REGAB (West African margin, 3160 m water depth) is an active methane-emitting cold seep ecosystem, where the energy derived from microbially mediated oxidation of methane supports high biomass and diversity of chemosynthetic communities. Bare sediments interspersed with heterogeneous chemosynthetic assemblages of mytilid mussels, vesicomyid clams and siboglinid tubeworms form a complex seep ecosystem. To better understand if benthic bacterial communities reflect the patchy distribution of chemosynthetic fauna, all major chemosynthetic habitats at REGAB were investigated using an interdisciplinary approach combining porewater geochemistry, in situ quantification of fluxes and consumption of methane, as well bacterial community fingerprinting. This study revealed that sediments populated by different fauna assemblages show distinct biogeochemical activities and are associated with distinct sediment bacterial communities. The methane consumption and methane effluxes ranged over one to two orders of magnitude across habitats, and reached highest values at the mussel habitat, which hosted a different bacterial community compared to the other habitats. Clam assemblages had a profound impact on the sediment geochemistry, but less so on the bacterial community structure. Moreover, all clam assemblages at REGAB were restricted to sediments characterized by complete methane consumption in the seafloor, and intermediate biogeochemical activity. Overall, variations in the sediment geochemistry were reflected in the distribution of both fauna and microbial communities; and were mostly determined by methane flux.

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 5031-5048 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Pop Ristova ◽  
F. Wenzhöfer ◽  
A. Ramette ◽  
M. Zabel ◽  
D. Fischer ◽  
...  

Abstract. The giant pockmark REGAB (West African margin, 3160 m water depth) is an active methane-emitting cold seep ecosystem, where the energy derived from microbially mediated oxidation of methane supports high biomass and diversity of chemosynthetic communities. Bare sediments interspersed with heterogeneous chemosynthetic assemblages of mytilid mussels, vesicomyid clams and siboglinid tubeworms form a complex seep ecosystem. To better understand if benthic bacterial communities reflect the patchy distribution of chemosynthetic fauna, all major chemosynthetic habitats at REGAB were investigated using an interdisciplinary approach combining pore water geochemistry, in situ quantification of fluxes and consumption of methane, as well as bacterial community fingerprinting. This study revealed that sediments populated by different fauna assemblages show distinct biogeochemical activities and are associated with distinct sediment bacterial communities. The methane consumption rates and methane effluxes ranged over one to two orders of magnitude across habitats, and reached highest values at the mussel habitat, which hosted a different bacterial community compared to the other habitats. Clam assemblages had a profound impact on the sediment geochemistry, but less so on the bacterial community structure. Moreover, all clam assemblages at REGAB were restricted to sediments characterized by complete methane consumption in the seafloor, and intermediate biogeochemical activity. Overall, variations in the sediment geochemistry were reflected in the distribution of both fauna and microbial communities; and were mostly determined by methane flux.


Minerals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tianfu Xu ◽  
Songhua Shang ◽  
Hailong Tian ◽  
Keqi Bei ◽  
Yuqing Cao

Submarine cold seep and its associated authigenic minerals in sediment are meaningful to indicate the existence of underlying natural gas hydrate. The anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) is coupled with sulfate reduction (SR) and influences the dissolution and precipitation of barite. However, the forming mechanism of barite is not yet clearly understood. In order to investigate the forming process of authigenic barite and its relationship with methane leakage flux, based on the measured data of the Qiongdongnan Basin in the Northern slope of the South China Sea, we constructed a 1D model of a sedimentary column to reproduce the formation of barite using the numerical simulation method. The results show that the original equilibrium of barite was broken by the cold seep fluids and Ba2+ was carried upward to the sulfate-rich zone leading to the formation of barite front. When there is no flux of methane from the bottom of sediment, the barite front disappears. The relationship between methane leakage flux and authigenic minerals was also discussed. It can be concluded that high methane flux corresponds to a shallow barite front in the sediment, furthermore, the barite content first increases and then decreases as the methane flux increases. At the same time, an inverse relationship between the ratio of authigenic barite to calcite and methane flux was obtained.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yihong Yue ◽  
Ling Cai ◽  
Yi Tang ◽  
Yuanyuan Zhang ◽  
Ming Yang ◽  
...  

Water eutrophication is a global ecological issue, and thermal stratification of water bodies can enable eutrophication. We examined bacterial communities in the stratified water columns and sediments in two different trophic reservoirs along the Wujiang River using quantitative real-time PCR and high-throughput sequencing. Bacterial 16S rRNA gene copies varied from 3.70 × 107 to 5.27 × 108 copies/L in the water column of Hongjiadu (HJD) Reservoir (60 m water depth) with slightly stratified variation; while in Wujiangdu (WJD) Reservoir (70 m water depth), bacterial abundance decreased markedly from the surface to the bottom(1.74 × 109 to 2.38 × 107 copies/L). The vertical distribution patterns of bacteria in both reservoirs resembled those of water Chlorophyll a (Chla) concentrations. The abundance was negatively correlated with water depth (D), total nitrogen (TN), nitrate (NO3–-N), and positively correlated with water temperature (T) and dissolved oxygen (DO) level. In contrast, the alpha diversity of bacteria showed the opposite trend in the vertical water column. Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Bacteroidetes were the predominant phyla in the water column of both reservoirs. Compared to WJD Reservoir, HJD Reservoir displayed marked vertical spatial difference in bacterial community structure during thermal stratification. In particular, Pseudomonas was frequently detected at the bottom of the HJD Reservoir. These results were consistent with predictive metagenomic profiling that revealed different vertical functional variation patterns of the bacterial communities in the two reservoirs. The bacterial community structure of HJD Reservoir was associated with water D, ammonium (NH4+-N), nitrite (NO2–-N), and total phosphorus (TP). The community structure of WJD Reservoir was related to water T, Chla, NO3–-N, and TN. The findings highlighted the important roles played by thermal stratification and nutrients in shaping the water bacterial community structure. Additionally, the absolute abundance of water nitrifiers (AOB gene copies) and denitrifiers (narG, nirS, norB, and nosZ gene copies) displayed significant vertical differences in the water columns of both reservoirs. Gene copies involved in denitrification were significantly higher than those involved in nitrification. Water phosphorus and nitrogen contents were important variables influencing the absolute abundance of ammonia oxidizers and denitrifying bacteria, respectively. Our study revealed that the emergence of thermal stratification was responsible for the vertical stratification of bacteria in water and affected the bacterial community structure together with nutrients.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Young Kyung Kim ◽  
Keunje Yoo ◽  
Min Sung Kim ◽  
Il Han ◽  
Minjoo Lee ◽  
...  

Abstract Bacterial communities in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) affect plant functionality through their role in the removal of pollutants from wastewater. Bacterial communities vary extensively based on plant operating conditions and influent characteristics. The capacity of WWTPs can also affect the bacterial community via variations in the organic or nutrient composition of the influent. Despite the importance considering capacity, the characteristics that control bacterial community assembly are largely unknown. In this study, we discovered that bacterial communities in WWTPs in Korea and Vietnam, which differ remarkably in capacity, exhibit unique structures and interactions that are governed mainly by the capacity of WWTPs. Bacterial communities were analysed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing and exhibited clear differences between the two regions, with these differences being most pronounced in activated sludge. We found that capacity contributed the most to bacterial interactions and community structure, whereas other factors had less impact. Co-occurrence network analysis showed that microorganisms from high-capacity WWTPs are more interrelated than those from low-capacity WWTPs, which corresponds to the tighter clustering of bacterial communities in Korea. These results will contribute to the understanding of bacterial community assembly in activated sludge processing.


Toxins ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 232
Author(s):  
Antonio Gallo ◽  
Francesca Ghilardelli ◽  
Alberto Stanislao Atzori ◽  
Severino Zara ◽  
Barbara Novak ◽  
...  

Sixty-four corn silages were characterized for chemicals, bacterial community, and concentrations of several fungal metabolites. Silages were grouped in five clusters, based on detected mycotoxins, and they were characterized for being contaminated by (1) low levels of Aspergillus- and Penicillium-mycotoxins; (2) low levels of fumonisins and other Fusarium-mycotoxins; (3) high levels of Aspergillus-mycotoxins; (4) high levels of non-regulated Fusarium-mycotoxins; (5) high levels of fumonisins and their metabolites. Altersetin was detected in clusters 1, 3, and 5. Rugulusovin or brevianamide F were detected in several samples, with the highest concentration in cluster 3. Emodin was detected in more than 50.0% of samples of clusters 1, 3 and 5, respectively. Kojic acid occurred mainly in clusters 1 and 2 at very low concentrations. Regarding Fusarium mycotoxins, high occurrences were observed for FB3, FB4, FA1, whereas the average concentrations of FB6 and FA2 were lower than 12.4 µg/kg dry matter. Emerging Fusarium-produced mycotoxins, such as siccanol, moniliformin, equisetin, epiequisetin and bikaverin were detected in the majority of analyzed corn silages. Pestalotin, oxaline, phenopirrozin and questiomycin A were detected at high incidences. Concluding, this work highlighted that corn silages could be contaminated by a high number of regulated and emerging mycotoxins.


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 1465
Author(s):  
Chao Shen ◽  
Liuyan Huang ◽  
Guangwu Xie ◽  
Yulai Wang ◽  
Zongkai Ma ◽  
...  

Increasing discharge of plastic debris into aquatic ecosystems and the worsening ecological risks have received growing attention. Once released, plastic debris could serve as a new substrate for microbes in waters. The complex relationship between plastics and biofilms has aroused great interest. To confirm the hypothesis that the presence of plastic in water affects the composition of biofilm in natural state, in situ biofilm culture experiments were conducted in a lake for 40 days. The diversity of biofilm attached on natural (cobble stones (CS) and wood) and plastic substrates (Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA)) were compared, and the community structure and composition were also analyzed. Results from high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA showed that the diversity and species richness of biofilm bacterial communities on natural substrate (observed species of 1353~1945, Simpson index of 0.977~0.989 and Shannon–Wiener diversity index of 7.42~8.60) were much higher than those on plastic substrates (observed species of 900~1146, Simpson index of 0.914~0.975 and Shannon–Wiener diversity index of 5.47~6.99). The NMDS analyses were used to confirm the taxonomic significance between different samples, and Anosim (p = 0.001, R = 0.892) and Adonis (p = 0.001, R = 808, F = 11.19) demonstrated that this classification was statistically rigorous. Different dominant bacterial communities were found on plastic and natural substrates. Alphaproteobacterial, Betaproteobacteria and Synechococcophycideae dominated on the plastic substrate, while Gammaproteobacteria, Phycisphaerae and Planctomycetia played the main role on the natural substrates. The bacterial community structure of the two substrates also showed significant difference which is consistent with previous studies using other polymer types. Our results shed light on the fact that plastic debris can serve as a new habitat for biofilm colonization, unlike natural substrates, pathogens and plastic-degrading microorganisms selectively attached to plastic substrates, which affected the bacterial community structure and composition in aquatic environment. This study provided a new insight into understanding the potential impacts of plastics serving as a new habitat for microbial communities in freshwater environments. Future research should focus on the potential impacts of plastic-attached biofilms in various aquatic environments and the whole life cycle of plastics (i.e., from plastic fragments to microplastics) and also microbial flock characteristics using microbial plastics in the natural environment should also be addressed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ananda Tiwari ◽  
Anna-Maria Hokajärvi ◽  
Jorge Santo Domingo ◽  
Michael Elk ◽  
Balamuralikrishna Jayaprakash ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Rivers and lakes are used for multiple purposes such as for drinking water (DW) production, recreation, and as recipients of wastewater from various sources. The deterioration of surface water quality with wastewater is well-known, but less is known about the bacterial community dynamics in the affected surface waters. Understanding the bacterial community characteristics —from the source of contamination, through the watershed to the DW production process—may help safeguard human health and the environment. Results The spatial and seasonal dynamics of bacterial communities, their predicted functions, and potential health-related bacterial (PHRB) reads within the Kokemäenjoki River watershed in southwest Finland were analyzed with the 16S rRNA-gene amplicon sequencing method. Water samples were collected from various sampling points of the watershed, from its major pollution sources (sewage influent and effluent, industrial effluent, mine runoff) and different stages of the DW treatment process (pre-treatment, groundwater observation well, DW production well) by using the river water as raw water with an artificial groundwater recharge (AGR). The beta-diversity analysis revealed that bacterial communities were highly varied among sample groups (R = 0.92, p <  0.001, ANOSIM). The species richness and evenness indices were highest in surface water (Chao1; 920 ± 10) among sample groups and gradually decreased during the DW treatment process (DW production well; Chao1: 320 ± 20). Although the phylum Proteobacteria was omnipresent, its relative abundance was higher in sewage and industrial effluents (66–80%) than in surface water (55%). Phyla Firmicutes and Fusobacteria were only detected in sewage samples. Actinobacteria was more abundant in the surface water (≥13%) than in other groups (≤3%). Acidobacteria was more abundant in the DW treatment process (≥13%) than in others (≤2%). In total, the share of PHRB reads was higher in sewage and surface water than in the DW treatment samples. The seasonal effect in bacterial communities was observed only on surface water samples, with the lowest diversity during summer. Conclusions The low bacterial diversity and absence of PHRB read in the DW samples indicate AGR can produce biologically stable and microbiologically safe drinking water. Furthermore, the significantly different bacterial communities at the pollution sources compared to surface water and DW samples highlight the importance of effective wastewater treatment for protecting the environment and human health.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandeep Kumar ◽  
M. Ajmal Khan ◽  
Emma Beijer ◽  
Jinxin Liu ◽  
Katherine K. Lowe ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The nutrition of calves from birth until weaning is predominantly from liquid (milk or milk-based) feeds. Liquid feed allowances are often restricted during artificial rearing to accelerate the development of the rumen by promoting solid feed intake. Liquid feeds bypass the rumen and are digested in the lower digestive tract, however, the influence of different types of milk feeds, and their allowances, on the calf hindgut microbiota is not well understood. In this study, faecal samples from 199 calves raised on three different allowances of milk replacer: 10% of initial bodyweight (LA), 20% of initial bodyweight (HA), and ad libitum (ADLIB), were collected just prior to weaning. Bacterial community structures and fermentation products were analysed, and their relationships with calf growth and health parameters were examined to identify potential interactions between diet, gut microbiota and calf performance. Results Differences in the total concentrations of short-chain fatty acids were not observed, but higher milk replacer allowances increased the concentrations of branched short-chain fatty acids and decreased acetate to propionate ratios. The bacterial communities were dominated by Ruminococcaceae, Lachnospiraceae and Bacteroides, and the bacterial diversity of the ADLIB diet group was greater than that of the other diet groups. Faecalibacterium was over three times more abundant in the ADLIB compared to the LA group, and its abundance correlated strongly with girth and body weight gains. Milk replacer intake correlated strongly with Peptococcus and Blautia, which also correlated with body weight gain. Bifidobacterium averaged less than 1% abundance, however its levels, and those of Clostridium sensu stricto 1, correlated strongly with initial serum protein levels, which are an indicator of colostrum intake and passive transfer of immunoglobulins in early life. Conclusions Higher milk replacer intakes in calves increased hindgut bacterial diversity and resulted in bacterial communities and short chain fatty acid profiles associated with greater protein fermentation. Increased abundances of beneficial bacteria such as Faecalibacterium, were also observed, which may contribute to development and growth. Moreover, correlations between microbial taxa and initial serum protein levels suggest that colostrum intake in the first days of life may influence microbiota composition at pre-weaning.


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