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Bacterial community variations in the South China Sea driven by different chemical conditions

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Abstract

In this study, Illumina MiSeq sequencing of the 16 S rRNA gene was used to describe the bacterial communities in the South China Sea (SCS) during the southwest monsoon period. We targeted different regions in the SCS and showed that bacterial community was driven by the effects of the river, upwelling, and mesoscale eddy through changing the environmental factors (salinity, temperature, and nutrients). Distinct bacterial communities were observed among different chemical conditions, especially between the estuary and the open sea. The abundance of Burkholderiales, Frankiales, Flavobacteriales, and Rhodobacterales dominated the estuary and its adjacent waters. Bacteria in cyclonic eddy were dominated by Methylophilales and Pseudomonadales, whereas Prochlorococcus, SAR11 clade, and Oceanospirillales had relatively high abundance in the anticyclonic eddy. Overall, the abundance of specific phylotypes significantly varied among samples with different chemical conditions. Chemical conditions probably act as a driver that shapes and controls the diversity of bacteria in the SCS. This study suggests that the interaction between microbial and environmental conditions needs to be further considered to fully understand the diversity and function of marine microbes.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Project of Guangdong Science and Technology Department (2017A020216008), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41406130, 31971480, U1901211 and 41876126), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA23050200 and XDA19060201), the Key Special Project for Introduced Talents Team of Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (GML2019ZD0305), the National Key Research and Development Plan (2017FY100700) and the International Partnership Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (133244KYSB20180012) and Innovation Academy of South China Sea Ecology and Environmental Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ISEE2019ZR02 and ISEE2018ZD02).

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Correspondence to You-Shao Wang.

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Sun, Fl., Wang, YS., Wu, ML. et al. Bacterial community variations in the South China Sea driven by different chemical conditions. Ecotoxicology 30, 1808–1815 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-021-02455-w

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