Scholarlink

<p>Coastal tidal flats are crucial ecosystems that are increasingly affected by environmental changes. Salinity is a key coastal environmental factor, and understanding how microbial communities respond to different salinity levels is crucial for studying their diversity and stability. However, the response of microbial communities to salinity at a fine scale in coastal tidal flats remains poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the distribution patterns and multistability of microbial communities in surface waters and sediments across 40 sampling sites in the tidal flats of Jiangsu Province, with salinity ranging from 0.7 to 35.0‰. The results revealed that salinity was a significant environmental factor influencing the alpha diversity of microbial communities. Alpha diversity indices of bacterial communities showed a minimum species richness in the low-salinity group (&lt; 20.0‰) in surface water samples, while in sediment samples, the lowest species richness occurred in the medium-salinity group (20 ~ 29‰). Microbial co-occurrence networks were more complex in the water than in the sediment samples. Additionally, the key phyla <i>Proteobacteria</i> and <i>Actinobacteriota</i> in water samples and <i>Desulfobacterota</i> and <i>Bacteroidota</i> in sediment samples were significantly correlated with salinity. Redundancy analysis (RDA) showed that, in addition to salinity, total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) were also significant factors influencing bacterial community composition. More importantly, a significant shift of bacterial communities was observed when salinity reached 20‰, which was recognized as the change point. Combined with alternative stable states theory, we found the presence of alternative stable states in microbial communities, with salinity identified as a key driver of these states. These findings enhance our understanding of the salinity range for state transitions under natural salinity gradients and improving our ability to predict catastrophic changes in coastal tidal flat ecosystems.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

Salinity gradients induced multistability shifts of microbial communities in coastal tidal flats of Jiangsu Province

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年10月17日

查看全文
  • Jiating Fan,
  • Linqiong Wang,
  • Pengxiao Fu,
  • Hong Ling,
  • Zhe Zhao

摘要

Coastal tidal flats are crucial ecosystems that are increasingly affected by environmental changes. Salinity is a key coastal environmental factor, and understanding how microbial communities respond to different salinity levels is crucial for studying their diversity and stability. However, the response of microbial communities to salinity at a fine scale in coastal tidal flats remains poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the distribution patterns and multistability of microbial communities in surface waters and sediments across 40 sampling sites in the tidal flats of Jiangsu Province, with salinity ranging from 0.7 to 35.0‰. The results revealed that salinity was a significant environmental factor influencing the alpha diversity of microbial communities. Alpha diversity indices of bacterial communities showed a minimum species richness in the low-salinity group (< 20.0‰) in surface water samples, while in sediment samples, the lowest species richness occurred in the medium-salinity group (20 ~ 29‰). Microbial co-occurrence networks were more complex in the water than in the sediment samples. Additionally, the key phyla Proteobacteria and Actinobacteriota in water samples and Desulfobacterota and Bacteroidota in sediment samples were significantly correlated with salinity. Redundancy analysis (RDA) showed that, in addition to salinity, total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) were also significant factors influencing bacterial community composition. More importantly, a significant shift of bacterial communities was observed when salinity reached 20‰, which was recognized as the change point. Combined with alternative stable states theory, we found the presence of alternative stable states in microbial communities, with salinity identified as a key driver of these states. These findings enhance our understanding of the salinity range for state transitions under natural salinity gradients and improving our ability to predict catastrophic changes in coastal tidal flat ecosystems.