Microbial communities are an important aspect of overall riverine ecology; however, appreciation of the effects of anthropogenic activities on unique riverine microbial niches, and how the collection of these samples affects the observed diversity and community profile is lacking. We analyzed prokaryotic and eukaryotic communities from surface water, biofilm, suspended load niches along a gradient of oil sands-related contamination in the Athabasca River (Alberta, Canada), with suspended load or particle-associated communities collected either via Kenney Sampler or centrifugation manifold. At the level of phyla, different niche communities were highly similar to one another and across locations. However, there were significant differences in the abundance of specific genera amongst different niches and across sampling locations. A generalized linear model revealed that use of the Kenney Sampler resulted in more diverse bacterial and eukaryotic suspended load community than centrifugal collection, though “suspended load” communities collected by any means remained stably diverse across locations. Though there was influence of water quality parameters on community composition, all sampled sites support diverse bacterial and eukaryotic communities regardless of the degree of contamination, highlighting the need to look beyond ecological diversity as means of assessing ecological perturbations, and consider collecting samples from multiple niche environments.
Extensive permafrost thawing is currently underway in Arctic soils due to disproportionate Arctic region warming (Biskaborn et al., 2019). Previously frozen soil organic carbon (SOC) pools are entering active biogeochemical cycles and may be converted to greenhouse gases (GHGs; e.g.,
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