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Interplay between eutrophication and climate warming on bacterial communities in coastal sediments differs depending on water depth and oxygen history.

ABSTRACT: Coastal aquatic systems suffer from nutrient enrichment, which results in accelerated eutrophication effects due to increased microbial metabolic rates. Climate change related prolonged warming will likely accelerate existing eutrophication effects, including low oxygen concentrations. However, how the interplay between these environmental changes will alter coastal ecosystems is poorly understood. In this study, we compared 16S rRNA gene amplicon based bacterial communities in coastal sediments of a Baltic Sea basin in November 2013 and 2017 at three sites along a water depth gradient with varying bottom water oxygen histories. The shallow site showed changes of only 1.1% in relative abundance of bacterial populations in 2017 compared to 2013, while the deep oxygen-deficient site showed up to 11% changes in relative abundance including an increase of sulfate-reducing bacteria along with a 36% increase in organic matter content. The data suggested that bacterial communities in shallow sediments were more resilient to seasonal oxygen decline, while bacterial communities in sediments subjected to long-term hypoxia seemed to be sensitive to oxygen changes and were likely to be under hypoxic/anoxic conditions in the future. Our data demonstrate that future climate changes will likely fuel eutrophication related spread of low oxygen zones.

SUBMITTER: Seidel L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8642432 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Coastal marine ecosystems are some of the most diverse natural habitats while being highly vulnerable in the face of climate change. The combination of anthropogenic influence from land and ongoing climate change will likely have severe effects on the environment, but the precise response remains uncertain. This study compared an unaffected "control" Baltic Sea bay to a "heated" bay that has undergone artificial warming from cooling water release from a nuclear power plant for ~50 years. This heated the water in a similar degree to IPCC SSP5-8.5 predictions by 2100 as natural systems to study temperature-related climate change effects. Bottom water and surface sediment bacterial communities and their biogeochemical processes were investigated to test how future coastal water warming alters microbial communities; shifts seasonal patterns, such as increased algae blooming; and influences nutrient and energy cycling, including elevated respiration rates. 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing and geochemical parameters demonstrated that heated bay bottom water bacterial communities were influenced by increased average temperatures across changing seasons, resulting in an overall Shannon's H diversity loss and shifts in relative abundances. In contrast, Shannon's diversity increased in the heated surface sediments. The results also suggested a trend toward smaller-sized microorganisms within the heated bay bottom waters, with a 30% increased relative abundance of small size picocyanobacteria in the summer (June). Furthermore, bacterial communities in the heated bay surface sediment displayed little seasonal variability but did show potential changes of long-term increased average temperature in the interplay with related effects on bottom waters. Finally, heated bay metabolic gene predictions from the 16S rRNA gene sequences suggested raised anaerobic processes closer to the sediment-water interface. In conclusion, climate change will likely alter microbial seasonality and diversity, leading to prolonged and increased algae blooming and elevated respiration rates within coastal waters.

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Interplay between eutrophication and climate warming on bacterial communities in coastal sediments differs depending on water depth and oxygen history.

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