Temporal variability of microbial communities during the past 600 years in a Tibetan lake sediment core

Abstract

Over the past decades, the Tibetan Plateau has been experiencing rapid climate change and increasing anthropogenic disturbance. The existing multi-proxy sediment records highlight the complex interplay of physical and ecological changes as a response to past climate changes on the Tibetan Plateau. Yet, it remains an open question of how sedimentary microbial communities respond to past climate changes and anthropogenic interventions. Using high-throughput Illumina sequencing, this study investigated the temporal changes of prokaryotic and eukaryotic communities in a Tibetan lake sediment core spanning the last 600 years. There were obvious temporal distributions of prokaryotic and eukaryotic indicator taxa, and these temporal patterns were mainly influenced by mean annual temperature (MAT), total phosphorus (TP) and nitrogen:phosphorus ratio (N:P). The alpha diversity of eukaryotic communities significantly increased with time ( P < 0.001), while the alpha diversity of prokaryotic communities did not exhibit obvious temporal turnover. Both prokaryotic and eukaryotic communities exhibited significant temporal-decay relationships. However, the turnover rate of the temporal-decay of eukaryotes (0.119) was significantly higher than that of prokaryotes (0.092). The effect of TP and N:P on the prokaryotic and eukaryotic communities were higher than that of MAT. The insights gained from this study can be helpful to understand the effects of past climate change and anthropogenic activities on the temporal distribution patterns of microbial communities, thus providing insights into predicting the succession of microbial communities and underlying mechanisms that drive them under future climate scenarios. • Microbial indicator taxa displayed obvious temporal distribution patterns. • Eukaryotes showed higher temporal turnover rate than bacteria. • MAT, TP and N:P influenced prokaryotic and eukaryotic communities in past 600 years.