Abstract
Ocean acidification may exacerbate the environmental impact of oil hydrocarbon pollution by disrupting the core composition of the superficial (0–1 cm) benthic bacterial communities. However, at the subsurface sediments (approximately 5 cm below sea floor), the local biochemical characteristics and the superjacent sediment barrier may buffer these environmental changes. In this study, we used a microcosm experimental approach to access the independent and interactive effects of reduced seawater pH and oil contamination on the composition of subsurface benthic bacterial communities, at two time points, by 16S rRNA gene-based high-throughput sequencing. An in-depth taxa-specific variance analysis revealed that the independent effects of reduced seawater pH and oil contamination were significant predictors of changes in the relative abundance of some specific bacterial groups (e.g., Firmicutes, Rhizobiales, and Desulfobulbaceae). However, our results indicated that the overall microbial community structure was not affected by independent and interactive effects of reduced pH and oil contamination. This study provides evidence that bacterial communities inhabiting subsurface sediment may be less susceptible to the effects of oil contamination in a scenario of reduced seawater pH.
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This work was supported by the Foundation for Science and Technology at the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science [UID/AMB/50017 for research unit CESAM; SFRH/BD/86447/2012 for AL, and SFRH/BPD/92366/2013 for FJRC], which is co-funded by national funds and FEDER within the PT2020 Partnership Agreement and Compete 2020. The ELSS construction was financed by European Funds through COMPETE (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-008657) and by National Funds through the Portuguese Science Foundation (FCT) within project PTDC/AAC-CLI/107916/2008.
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Louvado, A., Coelho, F.J.R.C., Gomes, H. et al. Independent and interactive effects of reduced seawater pH and oil contamination on subsurface sediment bacterial communities. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 32756–32766 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-3214-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-3214-5