Abstract
Hypersaline ecosystems—aquatic environments where concentration of salt exceeds 35 g L−1—host microbial communities that are highly specialised to cope with these extreme conditions. However, our knowledge on the taxonomic diversity and functional metabolisms characterising microbial communities in the water columns of hypersaline ecosystems is still limited, and this may compromise the future preservation of these unique environments. DNA metabarcoding provides a reliable and affordable tool to investigate environmental dynamics of aquatic ecosystems, and its use in brine can be highly informative. Here, we make use of bacterial 16S metabarcoding techniques combined with hydrochemical analyses to investigate the microbial patterns (diversity and functions) from five hypersaline lakes located at Rottnest Island (WA). Our results indicate lake-driven microbial aquatic assemblages that are characterised by taxonomically and functionally moderately to extremely halophilic groups, with TDS (total dissolved solids) and alkalinity amongst the most influential parameters driving the community patterns. Overall, our findings suggest that DNA metabarcoding allows rapid but reliable ecological assessment of the hypersaline aquatic microbial communities at Rottnest Island. Further studies involving different hypersaline lakes across multiple seasons will help elucidate the full extent of the potential of this tool in brine.
Highlights
Saline and hypersaline water bodies, environments where concentration of salt exceeds35 g L−1, are global biodiversity hotspots of microbial organisms which play a crucial role in regulating the energy flows and the biogeochemical cycles of these lakes [1,2].Given their ‘Mars-like’ conditions, hypersaline ecosystems are used as models for astrobiological studies [3]
This study aims to expand the current limited knowledge of such unique systems by incorporating environmental DNA extracted from hypersaline water samples and analysed with bacterial 16S metabarcoding to characterise the ecological dynamics of the microbial communities hosted by the hypersaline lakes at Rottnest Island
Total dissolved solids ranged from 118 mg L−1 in Garden Lake to 186.67 mg L−1 in Serpentine Lake
Summary
35 g L−1 , are global biodiversity hotspots of microbial organisms which play a crucial role in regulating the energy flows and the biogeochemical cycles of these lakes [1,2]. Given their ‘Mars-like’ conditions, hypersaline ecosystems are used as models for astrobiological studies [3]. Investigations of these systems are breaking boundaries between disciplines (i.e., biogeochemistry, genetics, hydrology) but yet public awareness of their key role to humankind is lacking and this deficiency needs to be addressed [4]. DNA metabarcoding is widely employed as an ecological tool in many contexts and ecosystems (i.e., groundwater [5,6], marine [7,8], terrestrial [9,10] and freshwater [11,12]), and it is gaining prominence as an effective, robust and reliable biomonitoring technique [13]. 4.0/).
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