Dataset Information

Determinants of community structure of zooplankton in heavily polluted river ecosystems.

ABSTRACT: River ecosystems are among the most affected habitats globally by human activities, such as the release of chemical pollutants. However, it remains largely unknown how and to what extent many communities such as zooplankton are affected by these environmental stressors in river ecosystems. Here, we aim to determine major factors responsible for shaping community structure of zooplankton in heavily polluted river ecosystems. Specially, we use rotifers in the Haihe River Basin (HRB) in North China as a case study to test the hypothesis that species sorting (i.e. species are "filtered" by environmental factors and occur at environmental suitable sites) plays a key role in determining community structure at the basin level. Based on an analysis of 94 sites across the plain region of HRB, we found evidence that both local and regional factors could affect rotifer community structure. Interestingly, further analyses indicated that local factors played a more important role in determining community structure. Thus, our results support the species sorting hypothesis in highly polluted rivers, suggesting that local environmental constraints, such as environmental pollution caused by human activities, can be stronger than dispersal limitation caused by regional factors to shape local community structure of zooplankton at the basin level.

SUBMITTER: Xiong W

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4766567 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Determinants of community structure of zooplankton in heavily polluted river ecosystems.

Xiong Wei W Li Jie J Chen Yiyong Y Shan Baoqing B Wang Weimin W Zhan Aibin A

Scientific reports 20160225

River ecosystems are among the most affected habitats globally by human activities, such as the release of chemical pollutants. However, it remains largely unknown how and to what extent many communities such as zooplankton are affected by these environmental stressors in river ecosystems. Here, we aim to determine major factors responsible for shaping community structure of zooplankton in heavily polluted river ecosystems. Specially, we use rotifers in the Haihe River Basin (HRB) in North China ...[more]

PMID: 26912391

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Project description:Majority of macrozooplankton have a wider dietary niche breadth and utilize small invertebrates, microzooplankton and mesozooplankton, so effect on primary production might be through trophic cascading effect. To better understand the ecosystem structure of benthic oyster-macroalgae reefs, we analyzed zooplankton community structure before (July 2016) and after (from September 2016 to October 2017) the construction of benthic reefs in the 2 km2 sea ranch area in Xiangyun Cove, Tangshan, China. We identified 57 zooplankton species, including the 12 cnidarian (e.g., Clytia hemisphaerica Linnaeus and Eirene ceylonensis Browne), 1 ctenopharyngodon (Pleurobrachia globosa Moser), 24 crustacean (e.g., Calanus sinicus Brodsky, Paracalanus parvus Claus, Labibocera euchaeta Glesbrecht, Labibocera bipinnata Tanaka, Calanopia thompsoni Scott, and Centropages dorsispinatus Thompson), 1 chaetognath (Sagitta crassa Tokioka), 1 urochordate species (Oikopleura dioica Fol), and 18 species of planktonic polychaete and gastropod larvae. The zooplankton density and biomass values before reef construction were 266.14 ind/m3 and 2.72 mg/m3, respectively, and those after reef construction were 138.06 ind/m3 and 32.91 mg/m3, respectively. The biomass trend was as follow: October 2017 (89.08 mg/m3) > August 2017 (70.97) > September 2016 (3.17) > July 2016 (2.72) > June 2017 (0.86) > May 2017 (0.44). The common dominant organisms were crustaceans and chaetognaths. According to the RDA ranking results, water temperature was positively correlated with the Shannon-Wiener diversity index and Margalef's richness indexes. With the increasement of Margalef's richness index, the value of dissolved oxygen content showed a significant negative correlation with zooplankton abundance. The results of this study are applicable to sustainable development and management strategies of coastal reef ecosystems and provide a basis for further surveys of secondary productivity in the sea ranch area.

Project description:Risks of pathogenic bacteria to the health of both human beings and water ecosystems have been widely acknowledged. However, traditional risk assessment methods based on fecal indicator bacteria and/or pure culture are not comprehensive at the community level, mainly owing to the limited taxonomic coverage. Here, we combined the technique of high-throughput sequencing and the concept of metacommunity to assess the potential pathogenic bacterial communities in an economically and ecologically crucial but highly polluted river-the North Canal River (NCR) in Haihe River Basin located in North China. NCR presented a significant environmental gradient, with the highest, moderate, and lowest levels of pollution in the up-, middle, and downstream. After multiple analyses, we successfully identified 48 genera, covering nine categories of potential pathogens (mainly human pathogens). The most abundant genus was Acinetobacter, which was rarely identified as a pathogen bacterium in previous studies of NCR. At the community level, we observed significant geographical variation of community composition and structure. Such a high level of geographical variation was mainly derived from differed abundance of species among sections along the river, especially the top seven Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs). For example, relative abundance of OTU1 (Gammaproteobacteria/Acinetobacter) increased significantly from upstream towards downstream. Regarding the underlying mechanisms driving community geographical variation, environmental filtering was identified as the dominant ecological process and total nitrogen as the most influential environmental variable. Altogether, this study provided a comprehensive profile of potential pathogenic bacteria in NCR and revealed the underlying mechanisms of community succession. Owing to their high abundance and wide geographical distribution, we suggest that potential pathogens identified in this study should be incorporated into future monitoring and management programs in NCR. By revealing the correlation between environmental factors and community composition, the results obtained in this study have significant implications for early warning and risk assessment of potential pathogen bacteria, as well as management practices in highly polluted river ecosystems.

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Determinants of community structure of zooplankton in heavily polluted river ecosystems.

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Determinants of community structure of zooplankton in heavily polluted river ecosystems.

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