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Impacts of the Three Gorges Dam on microbial structure and potential function.
Qingyun Yan1, Yonghong Bi2, Ye Deng3
11] State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China [2] Institute for Environmental Genomics and Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA.
Scientific Reports
|February 28, 2015
Summary
The Three Gorges Dam alters bacterioplankton communities in the Xiangxi River. Damming impacts microbial structure and function, particularly nitrogen cycling, affecting nutrient availability for phytoplankton.
Area of Science:
- Environmental microbiology
- Aquatic ecology
- Metagenomics
Background:
- Large dams like the Three Gorges Dam significantly impact riverine ecosystems.
- The effects of damming on bacterioplankton community structure and function remain largely unexplored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of the Three Gorges Dam on bacterioplankton communities in the Xiangxi River.
- To compare microbial taxonomic and functional differences between dam-affected (backwater) and unaffected (riverine) sites.
Main Methods:
- Utilized three established metagenomic tools for comprehensive analysis.
- Analyzed bacterioplankton communities from both backwater and riverine sites in the Xiangxi River.
Main Results:
- Bacterioplankton communities exhibited significant taxonomic and functional divergence between backwater and riverine sites.
- Riverine sites showed higher abundance of nitrogen-cycling Betaproteobacteria (e.g., Limnohabitans) and associated functional genes/pathways.
- KEGG Orthology (KO) categories for carbon and sulfur metabolism also displayed distinct patterns, correlating with environmental factors.
Conclusions:
- The Three Gorges Dam demonstrably affects bacterioplankton community structure and function in the Xiangxi River.
- Dam-induced environmental changes influence microbial nitrogen cycling, potentially impacting phytoplankton growth.
- This study offers crucial metagenomic insights into the microbial functional consequences of large dam construction.
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