Variation in Structure and Functional Diversity of Surface Bacterioplankton Communities in the Eastern East China Sea

Abstract

Bacterioplankton communities are critical components of varied ecosystems in the oceans. Their occurrences represent a variety of connections between environmental and ecological elements. However, our current knowledge about the shaping factors of surface bacterioplankton communities in the eastern East China Sea (ECS) is still limited. In this study, we reveal the spatial patterns of the taxonomic and functional profiles of the surface bacterioplankton communitiesies in the nearshore and offshore areas in the eastern ECS, based on 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing and functional annotation analysis. The obtained results show that the surface bacterioplankton communities in the nearshore areas are mainly dominated by the firmicutes (85.9%), actinobacteria (8.1%), and proteobacteria (5.4%), which are mainly involved in organic compound metabolism. Meanwhile, different bacteria predominate the composition of the offshore group, namely proteobacteria (71.1%) and bacteroidetes (22.0%) responsible for nitrogen and sulfur metabolism. Furthermore, their distribution pattern is shown to be spatially determined, along with a modest finding of functional diversity when comparing the bacterial species. The primary two shaping factors of bacterioplankton diversity are found to be the offshore distance and temperature. Overall, these findings add to those previously published on bacterial species and offer up functional information on the surface bacterioplankton communities in the eastern ECS. To extend our research, we propose that, in the future, it may be beneficial to monitor the dynamics of the ecosystem in this sea area.

Seasonal and anthropogenic influences on bacterioplankton communities: ecological impacts in the coastal waters of Qinhuangdao, Northern China

“…In this study, season was the key factor dominating the spatiotemporal distribution of bacterioplankton communities. While investigations ranging from the Zhoushan Sea area near the Yangtze River estuary to the continental shelf edge revealed that bacterioplankton distribution is influenced by the combined effects of temperature and offshore distance ( Wang et al, 2023 ). The substantial environmental changes between spring and summer lead to pronounced differences in their composition.…”

“…The study area is located in a semi-enclosed bay, and the bacterioplankton communities show significant differences compared to those in more open Chinese waters. In the eastern East China Sea, the bacterioplankton community of surface seawater in summer is predominantly composed of Firmicutes (85.9%), Actinobacteria (8.1%), and Proteobacteria (5.4%) ( Wang et al, 2023 ). Considering that all sampling sites in this study are close to the coastline, it is challenging to compare the bacterioplankton communities with those in offshore areas.…”