Differential responses of stream water and bed sediment microbial communities to watershed degradation

Abstract The importance of microbial communities in the function of lotic ecosystems is unequivocal. However, traditional watershed studies on biodiversity have mostly focused on benthic macroinvertebrates, macroalgae and fish assemblages. Here, we investigated the diversity and interaction patterns of microbial communities in water and bed sediment of streams impacted by intensive watershed activities versus streams with relatively pristine conditions via next-generation sequencing of 16S rRNA amplicons using Illumina HiSeq platform. Both water and sediment microbial communities at forested sites had higher mean alpha-diversity than developed sites. Although microbial alpha-diversity indices were generally higher in bed sediment than water, they were comparable at forested sites. In addition, losses of taxa important in nitrogen cycle were evident particularly in bed sediment of developed sites. Interactions among microorganisms visualized by microbial network were more complex at forested sites versus developed sites, with more keystone taxa predominantly from sediment. Together, these findings suggest stream water and bed sediment microbial communities may be affected by watershed disturbances in distinctive ways, and losses of important functional microbial players and keystone taxa in bed sediment may result in decline of ecosystem functions and services. Therefore, cautions should be taken when implementing remediation strategies such as sediment dredging, and reseeding contaminated sites with key microbial players may catalyze the recovery of ecosystems.