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Response of soil bacterial communities to lead and zinc pollution revealed by Illumina MiSeq sequencing investigation

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Abstract

Soil provides a critical environment for microbial community development. However, microorganisms may be sensitive to substances such as heavy metals (HMs), which are common soil contaminants. This study investigated bacterial communities using 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene fragment sequencing in geographic regions with and without HM pollution to elucidate the effects of soil properties and HMs on bacterial communities. No obvious changes in the richness or diversity of bacterial communities were observed between samples from mining and control areas. Significant differences in bacterial richness and diversity were detected between samples from different geographic regions, indicating that the basic soil characteristics were the most important factors affecting bacterial communities other than HMs. However, the abundances of several phyla and genera differed significantly between mining and control samples, suggesting that Zn and Pb pollution may impact the soil bacterial community composition. Moreover, regression analyses showed that the relative abundances of these phyla and genera were correlated significantly with the soil-available Zn and Pb contents. Redundancy analysis indicated that the soil K, ammoniacal nitrogen (NH4 +–N), total Cu, and available Zn and Cu contents were the most important factors. Our results not only suggested that the soil bacteria were sensitive to HM stresses but also indicated that other soil properties may affect soil microorganisms to a greater extent.

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Acknowledgments

The research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31400328 and 31501689) and the Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China (BK20140697 and BK20150670).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, People’s Republic of China

    Xihui Xu, Zhou Zhang, Shunli Hu, Zhepu Ruan, Jiandong Jiang, Chen Chen & Zhenguo Shen

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  1. Xihui Xu
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  2. Zhou Zhang
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Correspondence to Zhenguo Shen.

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Xu, X., Zhang, Z., Hu, S. et al. Response of soil bacterial communities to lead and zinc pollution revealed by Illumina MiSeq sequencing investigation. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 666–675 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-7826-3

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