Impacts of aquaculture wastewater irrigation on soil microbial functional diversity and community structure in arid regions

Abstract

Aquaculture wastewater is one of the most important alternative water resources in arid regions where scarcity of fresh water is common. Irrigation with this kind of water may affect soil microbial functional diversity and community structure as changes of soil environment would be significant. Here, we conducted a field sampling to investigate these effects using Biolog and metagenomic methods. The results demonstrated that irrigation with aquaculture wastewater could dramatically reduce soil microbial functional diversity. The values of diversity indices and sole carbon source utilization were all significantly decreased. Increased soil salinity, especially Cl concentration, appeared primarily associated with the decreases. Differently, higher bacterial community diversity was obtained in aquaculture wastewater irrigated soils. More abundant phyla Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi, Acidobacteria, Gemmatimonadetes and fewer members of Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Planctomycetes were found in this kind of soils. Changes in the concentration of soil Cl mainly accounted for the shifts of bacterial community composition. This research can improve our understanding of how aquaculture wastewater irrigation changes soil microbial process and as a result, be useful to manage soil and wastewater resources in arid regions.