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Spatial and Seasonal Variations in the Bacterial Community of an Anthropogenic Impacted Urban Stream

  • Microbiology of Aquatic Systems
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Abstract

Environmental changes and human activities can alter the structure and diversity of aquatic microbial communities. In this work, we analyzed the bacterial community dynamics of an urban stream to understand how these factors affect the composition of river microbial communities. Samples were taken from a stream situated in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which flows through residential, peri-urban horticultural, and industrial areas. For sampling, two stations were selected: one influenced by a series of industrial waste treatment plants and horticultural farms (PL), and the other influenced by residential areas (R). Microbial communities were analyzed by sequence analysis of 16S rRNA gene amplicons along an annual cycle. PL samples showed high nutrient content compared with R samples. The diversity and richness of the R site were more affected by seasonality than those of the PL site. At the amplicon sequence variants level, beta diversity analysis showed a differentiation between cool-season (fall and winter) and warm-season (spring and summer) samples, as well as between PL and R sites. This demonstrated that there is spatial and temporal heterogeneity in the composition of the bacterial community, which should be considered if a bioremediation strategy is applied. The taxonomic composition analysis also revealed a differential seasonal cycle of phototrophs and chemoheterotrophs between the sampling sites, as well as different taxa associated with each sampling site. This analysis, combined with a comparative analysis of global rivers, allowed us to determine the genera Arcobacter, Simplicispira, Vogesella, and Sphingomonas as potential bioindicators of anthropogenic disturbance.

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Acknowledgements

DFDP, AGT, NIL, RMH, and LJRI are CONICET researchers, while FAV, AMP, and DBR are CONICET doctoral fellows. Sampling permissions were obtained from IMDEL (Instituto Municipal de Desarrollo Económico Local) and the Municipality of Moreno. We especially thank Mrs. Verónica Eugenia Zimmer from IMDEL for her collaboration during the field campaigns.

Funding

This work was supported by the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas (CONICET), grant PUE2016 22920160100064CO (LJRI) and the University of Buenos Aires: grants 20020170200338BA (RMH) and 20020170100310BA (NIL).

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Author notes

  1. Federico A. Vignale, Daissy Bernal Rey and Agustín M. Pardo contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Química Biológica de La Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Y Naturales (IQUIBICEN)-CONICET, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Federico A. Vignale, Daissy Bernal Rey, Agustín M. Pardo, Facundo J. Almasqué, José G. Ibarra, Adrián G. Turjanski, Nancy I. López, Renata J. Menéndez Helman & Laura J. Raiger Iustman

  2. Instituto de Química Física de los Materiales, Medio Ambiente Y Energía (INQUIMAE)-CONICET, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Daissy Bernal Rey

  3. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Y Naturales, Instituto de Cálculo, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Agustín M. Pardo & Darío Fernández Do Porto

  4. Departamento de Química Biológica, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Darío Fernández Do Porto, Adrián G. Turjanski, Nancy I. López & Laura J. Raiger Iustman

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  1. Federico A. Vignale
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  4. Facundo J. Almasqué
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  10. Laura J. Raiger Iustman
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Contributions

Conceptualization: Federico A. Vignale, Nancy I. López, Laura J. Raiger Iustman; data curation: Federico A. Vignale, Agustín M. Pardo; formal analysis: Federico A. Vignale, Agustín M. Pardo, Daissy Bernal Rey, Facundo J. Almasqué; funding acquisition: Renata Menéndez Helman, Nancy I. López, Laura J. Raiger Iustman; investigation: Daissy Bernal Rey, Facundo J. Almasqué, José G. Ibarra, Renata Menéndez Helman, Laura J. Raiger Iustman; project administration: Laura J. Raiger Iustman; resources: Renata Menéndez Helman, Nancy I. López, Darío Fernández Do Porto, Adrián G. Turjanski, Laura J. Raiger Iustman; software: Agustín M. Pardo; supervision: Laura J. Raiger Iustman; validation: Federico A. Vignale, Nancy I. López, Laura J. Raiger Iustman; visualization: Federico A. Vignale, Laura J. Raiger Iustman; writing: Federico A. Vignale (original draft, reviewing, and editing), Daissy Bernal Rey (original draft, reviewing, and editing), Agustín M. Pardo, Darío Fernández Do Porto (review), Adrián G. Turjanski (review), Nancy I. López (original draft, reviewing, and editing), Renata Menéndez Helman (original draft, reviewing, and editing), Laura J. Raiger Iustman (original draft, reviewing, and editing).

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Correspondence to Laura J. Raiger Iustman.

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Vignale, F.A., Bernal Rey, D., Pardo, A.M. et al. Spatial and Seasonal Variations in the Bacterial Community of an Anthropogenic Impacted Urban Stream. Microb Ecol 85, 862–874 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-022-02055-z

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