Effects of Filtration Volumes on Bacterial Diversity and Community Structure in Freshwater Lakes

The use of membrane filtration is currently the most common method for collecting bacteria in lake water. However, the impact of different filtration volumes on bacterial diversity and community composition in lake water remains unclear. In this study, we collected water samples from mesotrophic Lake Bosten and eutrophic Lake Taihu in China. For Lake Bosten, we employed six filtration volumes (100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, and 3200 mL), while for Lake Taihu, seven filtration volumes (100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 1000, and 2000 mL) were used. Subsequently, Illumina MiSeq was employed to sequence the 16S rRNA genes, and statistical analyses were conducted on bacterial communities. Our study revealed that the water filtration volume impacts bacterial diversity, community structure, and taxonomic composition in both lakes. Based on the comprehensive consideration of the research results, we recommend using a filtering volume of 400-800 mL in mesotrophic lakes and 200-400 mL in eutrophic lakes for bacterial community studies.