TY - JOUR
T1 - Microbial community day-to-day dynamics during a spring algal bloom event in a tributary of Three Gorges Reservoir
AU - Tan, Bingyuan
AU - Hu, Pengfei
AU - Niu, Xiaoxu
AU - Zhang, Xing
AU - Liu, Jiakun
AU - Frenken, Thijs
AU - Hamilton, Paul B.
AU - Haffner, G. Douglas
AU - Chaganti, S. Rao
AU - Nwankwegu, Amechi S.
AU - Zhang, Lei
N1 - 7481, AqE
PY - 2022/9/15
Y1 - 2022/9/15
N2 - The microbial food-loop is critical to energy flow in aquatic food webs. We tested the hypothesis that species composition and relative abundance in a microbial community would be modified by the development of toxic algal blooms either by enhanced carbon production or toxicity. This study tracked the response of the microbial community with respect to composition and relative abundance during a 7-day algal bloom event in the Three Gorges Reservoir in May 2018. Chlorophyll a biomass, microscopic identification and cell counting of algae and algal abundance (ind. L−1) and carbon, nutrient concentrations (total phosphorus and nitrogen, dissolved total phosphorus and nitrogen), and DNA high throughput sequencing were measured daily. Algal density (1.2 × 109 ind. L−1) and Chlorophyll a (219 μg L−1) peaked on May 20th–21st, when the phytoplankton community was dominated by Chlorella spp. and Microcystis spp. The concentrations of both dissolved total nitrogen and phosphorus declined during the bloom period. Based on DNA high throughput sequencing data, the relative abundance of eukaryotic phytoplankton, microzooplankton (20–200 μm), mesozooplankton (>200 μm), and fungal communities varied day by day while the prokaryotic community revealed a more consistent structure. Enhanced carbon production during the bloom was closely associated with increased heterotrophic microbial composition in both the prokaryotic and eukaryotic communities. A storm event, however, that caused surface cooling and deep mixing of the water column greatly modified the composition and relative abundance of species in the microbial loop. The high temporal variability and dynamics observed in this study suggest that many factors, and not just algal blooms, were interacting to determine the composition and relative abundance of species of the microbial loop.
AB - The microbial food-loop is critical to energy flow in aquatic food webs. We tested the hypothesis that species composition and relative abundance in a microbial community would be modified by the development of toxic algal blooms either by enhanced carbon production or toxicity. This study tracked the response of the microbial community with respect to composition and relative abundance during a 7-day algal bloom event in the Three Gorges Reservoir in May 2018. Chlorophyll a biomass, microscopic identification and cell counting of algae and algal abundance (ind. L−1) and carbon, nutrient concentrations (total phosphorus and nitrogen, dissolved total phosphorus and nitrogen), and DNA high throughput sequencing were measured daily. Algal density (1.2 × 109 ind. L−1) and Chlorophyll a (219 μg L−1) peaked on May 20th–21st, when the phytoplankton community was dominated by Chlorella spp. and Microcystis spp. The concentrations of both dissolved total nitrogen and phosphorus declined during the bloom period. Based on DNA high throughput sequencing data, the relative abundance of eukaryotic phytoplankton, microzooplankton (20–200 μm), mesozooplankton (>200 μm), and fungal communities varied day by day while the prokaryotic community revealed a more consistent structure. Enhanced carbon production during the bloom was closely associated with increased heterotrophic microbial composition in both the prokaryotic and eukaryotic communities. A storm event, however, that caused surface cooling and deep mixing of the water column greatly modified the composition and relative abundance of species in the microbial loop. The high temporal variability and dynamics observed in this study suggest that many factors, and not just algal blooms, were interacting to determine the composition and relative abundance of species of the microbial loop.
KW - Algal bloom
KW - Aquatic microbial loop
KW - Eukaryotes
KW - Prokaryotes
KW - Three Gorges Reservoir
KW - Water quality and environmental factors
U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156183
DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156183
M3 - Article
C2 - 35623511
AN - SCOPUS:85131147206
SN - 0048-9697
VL - 839
SP - 156183
JO - Science of the Total Environment
JF - Science of the Total Environment
M1 - 156183
ER -