Abstract
The effects of tsunamis on microbial ecologies have been ill-defined, especially in Phang Nga province, Thailand. This ecosystem was catastrophically impacted by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami as well as the 600 year-old tsunami in Phra Thong island, Phang Nga province. No study has been conducted to elucidate their effects on microbial ecology. This study represents the first to elucidate their effects on microbial ecology. We utilized metagenomics with 16S and 18S rDNA-barcoded pyrosequencing to obtain prokaryotic and eukaryotic profiles for this terrestrial site, tsunami affected (S1), as well as a parallel unaffected terrestrial site, non-tsunami affected (S2). S1 demonstrated unique microbial community patterns than S2. The dendrogram constructed using the prokaryotic profiles supported the unique S1 microbial communities. S1 contained more proportions of archaea and bacteria domains, specifically species belonging to Bacteroidetes became more frequent, in replacing of the other typical floras like Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria and Basidiomycota. Pathogenic microbes, including Acinetobacter haemolyticus, Flavobacterium spp. and Photobacterium spp., were also found frequently in S1. Furthermore, different metabolic potentials highlighted this microbial community change could impact the functional ecology of the site. Moreover, the habitat prediction based on percent of species indicators for marine, brackish, freshwater and terrestrial niches pointed the S1 to largely comprise marine habitat indicating-species.
Highlights
Phra Thong island, Phang Nga province of southern Thailand (Figure 1), represents a location for comparative studies of tsunami (S1) and non-tsunami (S2) affected terrestrial ecosystems
The S1and S2 shared nearby geographies separated by a hill, whereby S1 terrain was inundated by the Indian Ocean tsunami on 26 December 2004 and S2 unaffected; otherwise both were comparable based on geological characteristics [1,2]
Phra Thong island provides a location for comparative tsunami (S1: N9.13194 E98.26250) and non-tsunami (S2: N9.07250 E98.27222) affected terrestrial studies based on geological evidences (Jankaew, personal communication) [1,2]
Summary
Phra Thong island, Phang Nga province of southern Thailand (Figure 1), represents a location for comparative studies of tsunami (S1) and non-tsunami (S2) affected terrestrial ecosystems. Each tsunami occurrence could affect the S1 terrestrial characteristics due to the massive impact of seawater with marine organisms and garbage [1,3,4]. Studies comparing the 2004 tsunami affected versus non-affected (or pre-affected) terrestrials and terrestrial water reported the greater salinity, acidity, conductivity, turbidity and organic contents following the tsunami occurrence [5,6,7]. The 2004 tsunami sediments consisted of higher concentrations of Mercury and Thallium [10,11]. Together, this chance of terrestrial characteristics could affect the microbial biodiversity and functional ecology
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