Analysis of The Impact of Human-Induced Pollutants on River Microbiology

Abstract

In recent decades, water quality and contaminant concentrations have been tightly regulated by relevant laws and monitoring. However, detailed microbial composition in different environments and their interactions with human activities has yet to be fully characterized. This paper shows how different environments, including city environments and highways, can affect the properties of water bodies closely associated with them geographically. Two pairs of locations along Schuylkill and Wissahickon River were sampled. Through 16s rRNA metagenomic sequencing and prediction, the taxonomic and gene profile of samples from various locations were elucidated. Through comparative study of these samples, the effect of human activity on the river between the locations were suggested. In the Wissahickon River, metagenome analysis indicates that human-induced pollutants fostered the growth of bacteria that are able to utilize them but suggests no increment of genes’ abundance that resist their damaging effects, such as heavy metals exporting ATPase, and various antibiotic resistance genes. In the Schuylkill River, the analysis indicates that the growth of the aforementioned bacteria is insignificant, and the resistance genes are predicted to decrease in the urban area where it is anticipated to receive more influence from human activities, rendering the result inconclusive. This study is anticipated to become the starting point for future research on microbial populations in water bodies so that the dynamics of how human activities influence river microbiology can be determined more clearly.