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Sources and composition of sediment dissolved organic matter determine the ecological strategies of bacteria in rivers: evidence, mechanism, and implications

  • Sediments, Sec 4 • Sediment-Ecology Interactions • Research Article
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

The changes of bioavailable carbon components in dissolved organic matter (DOM) may stimulate bacteria to alter their ecological strategies. This study aimed to analyze the coupling connections between the core bacterial communities and the organic carbon components in sediment and to discuss the ecological strategies of bacteria in different rivers.

Methods

Sediment samples were collected from the Duliujian River (DLJ) and Yongdingxin River (YDX) in Tianjin, China. The sources and components of DOM in sediments were analyzed by using excitation–emission matrix fluorescence spectroscopy coupled with parallel factor analysis, and the sediment bacterial parameters were determined by using the 16S rDNA high-throughput sequencing method.

Results

The sediment DOM in DLJ is mainly terrigenous, with high humus-like materials (58.69%), and the sediment DOM in YDX is mainly autogenous, with high protein-like materials (65.24%). At the phylum level, the relative abundance of Proteobacteria in the sediment of YDX is significantly higher than that of DLJ (P < 0.01). However, the relative abundance of Actinobacteria in the sediment of DLJ is significantly higher than that of YDX (P < 0.01). At the genus level, Thiobacillus and Halomonas are more abundant in YDX than in DLJ, whereas Pseudomonas, Sphingomonas, Pseudarthrobacter, Haliangium, and Actinomycetales are more abundant in DLJ than in YDX. Co-occurrence network analysis indicates that the core bacterial communities of YDX have a greater network complexity than that of DLJ. Soil major nutrients and pH have no direct effects on the DOM composition, but they have significant effects on the core bacterial communities and/or their metabolic pathways (P < 0.05).

Conclusion

Terrigenous inputs and humus-like substances of sediment DOM promote the resource utilization capacity of bacteria, which may adapt to external changes by regulating metabolic function, and their carbon capture strategies are determined by metabolic demand.

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Data availability

Data will be made available on request.

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Funding

This work is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41303057), Tianjin Research Program of Application Foundation, and Advanced Technology (14JCYBJC23000).

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Author notes

  1. Ning Zhang and Jiayuan Liu contributed equally to this paper.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tianjin Key Laboratory of Hazardous Waste Safety Disposal and Recycling Technology, School of Environmental Science and Safety Engineering, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin, 300384, China

    Ning Zhang, Jiayuan Liu, Tianyu Zhang, Yimin Teng, Ziyu Meng & Fude Liu

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  1. Ning Zhang
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  2. Jiayuan Liu
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  3. Tianyu Zhang
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  4. Yimin Teng
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  6. Fude Liu
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Contributions

Ning Zhang: data curation, formal analysis, methodology, visualization, writing-original draft, writing—review and editing. Jiayuan Liu: data curation, formal analysis, methodology, visualization, writing-original draft, writing—review and editing. Tianyu Zhang: investigation, formal analysis. Yimin Teng: investigation, formal analysis. Ziyu Meng: formal analysis, methodology. Fude Liu: conceptualization, formal analysis, funding acquisition, project administration, investigation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Fude Liu.

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Zhang, N., Liu, J., Zhang, T. et al. Sources and composition of sediment dissolved organic matter determine the ecological strategies of bacteria in rivers: evidence, mechanism, and implications. J Soils Sediments 23, 2613–2627 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-023-03492-0

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