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Vertical variation of bacterial community in Nam Co, a large stratified lake in central Tibetan Plateau

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Abstract

We assessed the vertical variation of bacterial abundance, diversity and community composition in deep, high-altitude (4730 m above sea level) Lake Nam Co. The bacterial abundance reduced with increasing depth, while bacterial diversity increased in the deeper bottom water. Pyrosequencing revealed that the bacterial community in the lake showed a pronounced vertical shift: the Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria had relatively higher abundance in the epilimnion and metalimnion; the Firmicutes group dominated in the metalimnion; the Actinobacteria and Cyanobacteria mainly occupied the metalimnion and hypolimnion. Water temperature, conductivity, photosynthetically active radiation, and chlorophyll a were significantly correlated with the bacterial communities. These results indicated that the bacterial communities appeared to have an apparent vertical structure under lake stratification.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (No: 2012CB956100) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41425004). Professor John Hodgkiss of The University of Hong Kong is thanked for his help with English.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, 100101, Beijing, China

    Keshao Liu, Yongqin Liu, Liping Zhu, Junbo Wang & Xiaobo Liu

  2. CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100101, Beijing, China

    Yongqin Liu, Liping Zhu & Junbo Wang

  3. State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China

    Nianzhi Jiao

  4. Key Laboratory of Urban Pollutant Conversion, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 361021, Xiamen, China

    Anyi Hu

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  1. Keshao Liu
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  2. Yongqin Liu
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Correspondence to Yongqin Liu.

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Liu, K., Liu, Y., Jiao, N. et al. Vertical variation of bacterial community in Nam Co, a large stratified lake in central Tibetan Plateau. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 109, 1323–1335 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10482-016-0731-4

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