Recently, Professor Li Meng's team from Shenzhen University published their latest research in Environmental Research. The researchers unveiled the microbial community structure and nitrogen metabolism functions in the waters of the Yangtze River Estuary, particularly in the hypoxic zone.
Due to global warming and environmental pollution, hypoxic zones in the ocean are expanding annually, significantly impacting the overall microbial community structure and global nitrogen cycle. As one of the world's largest estuaries, the Yangtze River Estuary has exhibited seasonal hypoxic zones since the 1980s, but the composition of its microbial community and its impact on nitrogen cycling remain unclear.
In this study, Li Meng's team utilized 16S rRNA gene sequencing and metagenomic sequencing to analyze the microbial diversity, community assembly mechanisms, and nitrogen metabolism potential in the waters of the Yangtze River Estuary. They found that the microbial community composition in different water layers of the Yangtze River Estuary exhibited specific variations, dominated by Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Cyanobacteria, with both stochastic and deterministic processes shaping the microbial community in the estuarine waters.
Furthermore, the research revealed that pH was the most significant environmental factor influencing microbial composition in surface waters, followed by silicate, phosphate, and offshore distance; while water depth, ammonium nitrogen, and phosphate were the primary factors affecting microbial composition in bottom waters. The researchers also conducted analyses on species and functional genes, uncovering potential bacterial genera involved in nitrogen cycling, with higher abundances in bottom waters, particularly microbial groups involved in denitrification and anaerobic ammonia oxidation.
Related Paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2024.119011
