Distribution and diversity of bacterioplankton communities in subtropical seawater around Xiamen Island, China

Abstract

Marine bacterioplankton communities have profound impact on global biogeochemical cycles and ecological balances. However, relatively little is known about the bacterioplankton communities and the factors shaping their spatial distribution in subtropical island. Here, the bacterioplankton communities around a typical subtropical island, Xiamen Island, were revealed by analyzing bacterial 16S rRNA gene through quantitative PCR (qPCR) and 454 pyrosequencing methods. The qPCR results indicated that the abundance of 16S rRNA gene ranged from 2.07×107 to 2.13×108copiesmL−1 in surface seawater among eight sampling sites (S1–S8) around Xiamen Island, and the nitrogen and phosphorus-rich sites (S5 and S8) were detected with higher 16S rRNA gene abundance. Pyrosequencing evidenced that a total of 267 genera of 47 classes in 26 different phyla (or candidate phyla) and some unclassified bacteria were obtained from seawater around Xiamen Island. The most dominant phylum was Proteobacteria (49.62–76.84% among sites), followed by Bacteroidetes (6.64–20.88%), Actinobacteria (2.58–9.20%), Firmicutes (0.03–13.30%), Verrucomicrobia (0.23–2.67%) and Planctomycetes (0.14–2.20%). Among eight sites, the nitrogen and phosphorus-rich sites (S5 and S8) exhibited higher proportions of Gammaproteobacteria, Epsilonproteobacteria, Firmicutes and lower proportions of Alphaproteobacteria and Planctomycetes than other sites. S5 and S8 also had more similar β-diversity, and sampling site near the estuary (S8) showed the highest bacterial diversity. Redundancy analysis (RDA) confirmed that total nitrogen and total phosphorus significantly (P<0.05 and P<0.01, respectively) influenced the bacterioplankton communities around Xiamen Island. These results will provide insights into bacterial abundance, diversity and distribution patterns, as well as their controlling factors, in subtropical marine ecosystems.