Distribution patterns and community assembly processes of bacterial communities across different sediment habitats of...

Subsidence lakes, formed due to extensive underground coal mining activities, present both ecological challenges and opportunities for alternative land use practices, such as photovoltaic power generation and aquaculture. However, the ecological consequences of these anthropogenic activities on bacterial communities within subsidence lakes remain largely unexplored. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted a comprehensive investigation of bacterial communities in two typical subsidence lake districts located in Huainan, Anhui Province, China. A total of 44 sediment samples were collected across four distinct habitats: photovoltaic zones (PV), aquaculture zones (AC), photovoltaic-aquaculture zones (PV_AC), and unimpacted zones (Natural). Bacterial communities were investigated using 16S rRNA gene sequencing and various statistical methods. Our results revealed that the α-diversity and network complexity of bacterial communities in PV, PV_AC, and AC habitats are significantly higher than habitats of Natural (P < 0.01). Specifically, the α-diversity is the highest in PV habitats, while the network complexity is the highest in AC habitats. The network stability is the highest in PV and PV_AC habitats, while it is the lowest in AC. There were also significant differences in community structure among different habitats, Nitrospirota in PV (31.9%) was higher than that in the other three habitats, the percentage of Firmicute in Natural (21.96%) and PV_AC (13.70%) was higher than other two habitats, Actinobacteriota has the highest proportion in AC (20.93%). Furthermore, stochastic processes dominate community assembly in PV, PV_AC, and AC habitats, it has the highest proportion in PV, particularly on dispersal limitation (DL). However, deterministic processes prevail in Natural habitats, particularly on heterogeneous selection (HeS). Collectively, these findings highlight the significant differences in sediment bacterial communities across various habitats in subsidence lakes. Our study provides valuable insights into understanding the ecological implications of different habitats in subsidence lake ecosystems.