Interactions between water quality and microbes in epiphytic biofilm and superficial sediment of lake in trophic agriculture area

Abstract

Epiphytic and superficial sediment biofilm-dwelling microbial communities play a pivotal role in water quality regulation and biogeochemical cycling in shallow lakes. However, the interactions are far from clear between water physicochemical parameters and microbial community on aquatic plants and in surface sediments of lake in trophic agriculture area. This study employed Illumina sequencing, Partial Least Squares Path Modeling (PLS-PM), and physico-chemical analytical methods to explore the interactions between water quality and microbes (bacteria and eukaryotes) in three substrates of trophic shallow Lake Cyohoha North, Rwanda. The Lake Cyohoha was significantly polluted with total phosphorus (TP), total nitrogen (TN), nitrate nitrogen (NO3-N), and ammonia nitrogen (NH3−N) in the wet season compared to the dry season. PLS-PM revealed a strong positive correlation (+0.9301) between land use types and physico-chemical variables in the rainy season. In three substrates of the trophic lake, Proteobacteria, Cyanobacteria, Firmicutes, and Actinobacteria were dominant phyla in the bacterial communities, and Rotifers, Platyhelminthes, Gastrotricha, and Ascomycota dominated in microeukaryotic communities. As revealed by null and neutral models, stochastic processes predominantly governed the assembly of bacterial and microeukaryotic communities in biofilms and surface sediments. Network analysis revealed that the microbial interconnections in Ceratophyllum demersum were more stable and complex compared to those in Eichhornia crassipes and sediments. Co-occurrence network analysis (|r| > 0.7, p < 0.05) revealed that there were complex interactions among physicochemical parameters and microbes in epiphytic and sediment biofilms, and many keystone microbes on three substrates played important role in nutrients removal, food web and microbial community stable. These findings emphasize that eutrophic water influence the structure, composition, and interactions of microbes in epiphytic and surface sediment biofilms, and provided new insights into the interconnections between water quality and microbial community in presentative substrates in tropical lacustrine ecosystems in agriculturally polluted areas. The study provides useful information for water quality protection and aquatic plants restoration for policy making and catchment management.