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. 2021 Jun 15;16(6):e0253233.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0253233. eCollection 2021.

Spatial-temporal dynamics and influencing factors of archaeal communities in the sediments of Lancang River cascade reservoirs (LRCR), China

Bo Yuan  1 , Wei Wu  1 , Mengjing Guo  1 , Xiaode Zhou  1 , Shuguang Xie  2
Affiliations

Spatial-temporal dynamics and influencing factors of archaeal communities in the sediments of Lancang River cascade reservoirs (LRCR), China

Bo Yuan et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

The spatial and temporal distribution of the archaeal community and its driving factors in the sediments of large-scale regulated rivers, especially in rivers with cascade hydropower development rivers, remain poorly understood. Quantitative PCR (qPCR) and Illumina MiSeq sequencing of the 16S rRNA archaeal gene were used to comprehensively investigate the spatiotemporal diversity and structure of archaeal community in the sediments of the Lancang River cascade reservoirs (LRCR). The archaeal abundance ranged from 5.11×104 to 1.03×106 16S rRNA gene copies per gram dry sediment and presented no temporal variation. The richness, diversity, and community structure of the archaeal community illustrated a drastic spatial change. Thaumarchaeota and Euryyarchaeota were the dominant archaeal phyla in the sediments of the cascade rivers, and Bathyarchaeota was also an advantage in the sediments. PICRUSt metabolic inference analysis revealed a growing number of genes associated with xenobiotic metabolism and carbon and nitrogen metabolism in downstream reservoirs, indicating that anthropogenic pollution discharges might act as the dominant selective force to alter the archaeal communities. Nitrate and C/N ratio were found to play important roles in the formation of the archaeal community composition. In addition, the sediment archaeal community structure was also closely related to the age of the cascade reservoir and hydraulic retention time (HRT). This finding indicates that the engineering factors of the reservoir might be the greatest contributor to the archaeal community structure in the LRCR.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Study area and sampling sites in LRCR (the base map for this figure originated from NASA earth observatory (public domain)).
Fig 2
Fig 2. The abundance of archaeal 16S rRNA gene in summer and winter sediments of LRCR.
Fig 3
Fig 3
Archaeal community richness and diversity of LRCR in different seasons (a) and reservoirs (b).
Fig 4
Fig 4. Archaeal phyla relative distribution in LRCR.
Fig 5
Fig 5. Relative abundance of the major archaeal genera from LRCR.
Fig 6
Fig 6
Archaeal community compositions of sediment samples as indicated by NMDS in different seasons (a) and reservoirs (b).
Fig 7
Fig 7. RDA ordination plot for the first two principal dimensions of archaeal communities and environmental factors.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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