Greater temporal changes of sediment microbial community than its waterborne counterpart in Tengchong hot springs, Yunnan Province, China.

Shang Wang,Weiguo Hou,Qiuyuan Huang,Brandon R Briggs,Liuqin Huang,Hailiang Dong,Hongchen Jiang

doi:10.1038/srep07479

Abstract

Temporal variation in geochemistry can cause changes in microbial community structure and diversity. Here we studied temporal changes of microbial communities in Tengchong hot springs of Yunnan Province, China in response to geochemical variations by using microbial and geochemical data collected in January, June and August of 2011. Greater temporal variations were observed in individual taxa than at the whole community structure level. Water and sediment communities exhibited different temporal variation patterns. Water communities were largely stable across three sampling times and dominated by similar microbial lineages: Hydrogenobaculum in moderate-temperature acidic springs, Sulfolobus in high-temperature acidic springs, and Hydrogenobacter in high-temperature circumneutral to alkaline springs. Sediment communities were more diverse and responsive to changing physicochemical conditions. Most of the sediment communities in January and June were similar to those in waters. However, the August sediment community was more diverse and contained more anaerobic heterotrophs than the January and June: Desulfurella and Acidicaldus in moderate-temperature acidic springs, Ignisphaera and Desulfurococcus in high-temperature acidic springs, the candidate division OP1 and Fervidobacterium in alkaline springs, and Thermus and GAL35 in neutral springs. Temporal variations in physicochemical parameters including temperature, pH, and dissolved organic carbon may have triggered the observed microbial community shifts.

Highlights

Greater temporal changes of sediment microbial community than its waterborne counterpart in Tengchong hot springs, Yunnan Province, China
Spatial censuses of microbial community structure have been well-studied in diverse hot springs[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8] and these studies have shown that physicochemical parameters of hot springs such as temperature, pH and nutrient supply are important drivers for shaping microbial diversity and community structure as well as metabolism[4,5,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16]
Consistent with previous results[19], dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and total nitrogen (TN) of spring waters and total organic carbon (TOC) of sediments were higher in samples of the rainy season (June and August) than in those from the dry season (January), reflecting the increased monthly precipitation from January to August (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

Greater temporal changes of sediment microbial community than its waterborne counterpart in Tengchong hot springs, Yunnan Province, China. In the well-studied Obsidian Pool in the Mud Volcano Area, Yellowstone National Park, the United States, pH variation was correlated to temporal variation in bacterial abundance[20] These past studies have shown that temporal changes in geochemical conditions of hot springs could result in temporal shifts of microbial community structure. It is imperative to compare and contrast temporal variations in water and sediment microbial diversity and community structure in Tengchong hot springs, at different taxonomic levels (whole community and individual microbial lineages). The goals of this study were to 1) determine the temporal variability of microbial lineages in individual hot springs in correlation with geochemical conditions; and 2) compare the response patterns between sediment and water communities to temporal variations in geochemistry

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion