Heterogeneity of Bacterial Community Compositions in Surface Sediments of Three Lake Zones in Lake Taihu

Abstract

Lake Taihu is the third largest freshwater lake in China. In the present study, sediment samples collected from three different zones of Lake Taihu (Meiliang bay, Eastern Lake Taihu and Xukou bay) were determined for bacterial community compositions using the terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism of PCR-amplified 16S rRNA gene and clone libraries. Three 16S rRNA clone libraries were constructed, which demonstrated that Chloroflexi were the most dominant bacterial group in the library of Meiliang bay (25.0 % of total clones) and Betaproteobacteria were the most abundant group in the libraries of Xukou bay and Eastern Lake Taihu (48.9 and 33.3 % of the total clones). The results of ∫-Libshuff analyzes showed that there were significant differences between the clone libraries from Xukou bay and the other two zones (P < 0.05). Canonical correspondence analysis indicated that total nitrogen had significant effects on bacterial community structure in the lake sediments.