Marine Bacterial Diversity in Coastal Sichang Island, the Upper Gulf of Thailand, in 2011 Wet Season

Abstract

Tha Wang coast in Sichang island, Chonburi province, Thailand, serves a major pier, cargo transportation and is populated with anthropogenic activities. Hence, monitoring of environmental status, in part by microbial diversity, is essential. Previously, the coastal marine microbiota of this area in a dry season (February 2011) had been reported, but the database for a wet season is none. As marine microbiota in several sites were reported fluctuate between dry and wet seasons, specifically in the 2011 that one of the largest flood in Thailand history even occurred from July 2011 to January 2012; the present study thereby first revealed the coastal Sichang water microbiota in the 2011 wet season (July 2011) using metagenomic derived 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Wet and dry seasons showed differences in prokaryotic community richness and evenness: community similarity indices by Jaccard, Lennon, and Yue and Clayton were 2.06-58.28%. This resulted in differences in metabolic potentials, for instances the lower metabolisms for energy and nutrient cycling but the greater in pathogenesis in wet season. Our data were also compared against the flooding water microbiota nearby to Chonburi province to observe any possible correlation; and the coastal Sichang was found distinct given diverse sources of flooding water and local contamination might affect the diversity. In conclusion, this wet-season microbiota supported the better knowledge on the seasonal microbiota of coastal Sichang island.

Investigation of the marine bacterial community along the coastline of the Gulf of Thailand

“…The present study identified a marine bacterial community along the coastline of the Gulf of Thailand based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The results of this study revealed a high abundance of bacteria in the phyla Proteobacteria, Bacteroidota, and Cyanobacteria at every sampling site, which corresponded to previous investigations of the microbiome in the seawater of the Gulf of Thailand [ [22] , [23] , [24] ]. These three phyla are also dominant in many other marine environments including the Baltic Sea, Japan Sea, and western North Atlantic [ 21 , 31 ].…”

“…In Thailand, studies have been conducted to investigate the bacterial community of seawater in the Gulf of Thailand. The major phyla present in the upper Gulf of Thailand are Bacteroidota, Cyanobacteria and Proteobacteria [ 22 , 23 ]. However, reports on the marine bacterial communities in the lower Gulf of Thailand, especially in south Thailand, are limited.…”

Assessment of Diversity of Culturable Marine Yeasts Associated with Corals and Zoanthids in the Gulf of Thailand, South China Sea

“…Fungi in marine environments, including yeasts, are far less studied than fungi in terrestrial environments, not only in Thailand but also all over the world. Oceans and seas cover more than 12 million km 2 along the coastline of the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand [30]; however, only a few investigations have been conducted there on the diversity of microbes, including yeasts [27,28,[31][32][33]. Consequently, marine habitats remain one of the habitats in Thailand still to be explored for their microbial diversity.…”