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Updated: May 5, 2026

Unraveling the Unseen Players in the Ocean - A Field Guide to Water Chemistry and Marine Microbiology
Published on: November 5, 2014
Community coalescence under variable hydrochemical conditions of the Chesapeake Bay shaped bacterial diversity and
Zhenyu Huang1, Longfei Shu1, Zhili He1
1School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Marine Synthetic Ecology Research Center, Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), Guangdong Provincial Observation and Research Station for Marine Ranching in Lingdingyang Bay, China-ASEAN Belt and Road Joint Laboratory on Mariculture Technology, State Key Laboratory for Biocontrol, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510006, China.
Abstract:
Community coalescence related to bacterial mixing events regulates community characteristics and affects the health of estuary ecosystems. At present, bacterial coalescence and its driving factors are still unclear. The present study used a dataset from the Chesapeake Bay (2017) to address how bacterial community coalescence in response to variable hydrochemistry in estuarine ecosystems. We determined that variable hydrochemistry promoted the deterioration of water quality. Temperature, orthophosphate, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll a, Secchi disk depth, and dissolved organic phosphorus were the key environmental factors driving community coalescence. Bacteria with high tolerance to environmental change were the primary taxa accumulated in community coalescence, and the significance of deterministic processes to communities was revealed. Community coalescence was significantly correlated with the pathways of metabolism and organismal systems, and promoted the co-occurrence of antibiotic resistance and virulence factor genes. Briefly, community coalescence under variable hydrochemical conditions shaped bacterial diversity and functional traits, to optimise strategies for energy acquisition and lay the foundation for alleviating environmental pressures. However, potential pathogenic bacteria in community coalescence may be harmful to human health and environmental safety. The present study provides a scientific reference for ecological management of estuaries.
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