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The effect of temperature fluctuation on the microbial diversity and community structure of rural household biogas digesters at Qinghai Plateau

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Abstract

Seasonal temperature-fluctuation has been regarded as a key environmental factor affecting rural biogas fermentation yields. The present study investigated the impact of seasonal temperature-fluctuation on operating-temperatures and biogas production in rural household digesters at Qinghai Plateau and revealed the related changes in microbial diversity and community structure by 16S rRNA gene high-throughput sequencing (HTS) analysis. Our results showed closely positive correlation between operating-temperatures and biogas production. HTS analysis indicated the highest diversity for bacteria community in autumn (at highest operating-temperatures) and late winter (at lowest operating-temperatures) and for archaea community only in autumn. HTS analysis classified bacteria into 21 phyla and 346 genera with the most predominant phyla Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria (> 72.4% in total) and the most predominant genera Proteiniphilum, Clostridium sensustricto 1, Petrimonas, Pseudomonas and Fastidiosipila (37.09–38.61% in total). HTS analysis also revealed two main archaea orders (Methanomicrobiales and Methanobacteriales) and one predominant genus Methanogenium to support plateau biogas fermentation. Especially, a remarkable impact of temperature on the community abundances of bacteria phyla Synergistetes and archaea genera Methanogenium and Thermogymnomonas was observed, and such microbial community structure changes were positively consistent with the biogas production. The present work provided the first set of evidences to link temperature-controlled modulation of microbial community structure with rural household biogas production at Qinghai Plateau.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31760034 & 31860030), the Applied Basic Research Program of Qinghai Province (2019-ZJ-7052), the Key Research Foundation of Development and Transformation of Qinghai Province (2019-SF-121), the Qinghai Province Technology Commercialization Project Qinghai Special Project for Key Science and Technology (2019-NK-116), and the Team’s Research Program of Microbial Resources in Salt-lakes of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (2018-KY-T1). We also greatly appreciate the help of the Shanghai Let Pub Office (China) of ACCDON LLC (USA) for professional editing of the manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31760034 & 31860030), the Applied Basic Research Program of Qinghai Province (2019-ZJ-7052), the Key Research Foundation of Development and Transformation of Qinghai Province (2019-SF-121), the Qinghai Province Technology Commercialization Project Qinghai Special Project for Key Science and Technology (2019-NK-116), and the Team’s Research Program of Microbial Resources in Salt-lakes of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (2018-KY-T1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Qinghai Key Laboratory of Vegetable Genetics and Physiology, Academy of Agriculture and Forestry, Qinghai University, Ningda Road 253, Xining, Qinghai, 810016, China

    Rui Han, Quanhui Li, Yi Li & Laisheng Chen

  2. Research Center of Basic Medical Sciences, Qinghai University Medical College, Xining, Qinghai, 810006, China

    Derui Zhu & Jiangwa Xing

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  1. Rui Han
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  2. Derui Zhu
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  4. Quanhui Li
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  5. Yi Li
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Correspondence to Derui Zhu or Laisheng Chen.

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Communicated by Erko Stackebrandt.

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Han, R., Zhu, D., Xing, J. et al. The effect of temperature fluctuation on the microbial diversity and community structure of rural household biogas digesters at Qinghai Plateau. Arch Microbiol 202, 525–538 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-019-01767-0

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