Microbial Biodiversity of the James River Rock Pool Ecosysten
Faculty Advisor Name
Kristin Yoshimura
Department
Department of Biology
Description
Rock pools are ephemeral aquatic environments that offer a unique opportunity to study complex communities and their responses to environmental changes. The urban James River rock pool system consists of over 700 individual rock pools varying in size and depth. The microbial community of this system was characterized using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and the influence of environmental variables on the community composition was analyzed. Findings show there is variation in microbial community composition across pools in relation to flood height, shade cover, temperature, and nutrient concentrations, while pool depth and chlorophyll a concentrations had a lesser impact on microbial composition. At the phylum level pools were mostly dominated by Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Cyanobacteria, however at the ASV level there was significant variability, with 14,063 ASVs observed only in a single pool. The strongest environmental drivers of microbial community composition were flood height, temperature, shade, and urea concentration. Ammonia concentrations affected the differential abundances of the highest number of microbial classes, followed by temperature and depth, while no microbial classes were differentially abundant in response to chlorophyll a or nitrite concentration. This study provides a baseline for long-term studies investigating how the microbial community in the James River rock pool ecosystem changes over time and in response to changes in environmental conditions.
Microbial Biodiversity of the James River Rock Pool Ecosysten
Rock pools are ephemeral aquatic environments that offer a unique opportunity to study complex communities and their responses to environmental changes. The urban James River rock pool system consists of over 700 individual rock pools varying in size and depth. The microbial community of this system was characterized using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and the influence of environmental variables on the community composition was analyzed. Findings show there is variation in microbial community composition across pools in relation to flood height, shade cover, temperature, and nutrient concentrations, while pool depth and chlorophyll a concentrations had a lesser impact on microbial composition. At the phylum level pools were mostly dominated by Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Cyanobacteria, however at the ASV level there was significant variability, with 14,063 ASVs observed only in a single pool. The strongest environmental drivers of microbial community composition were flood height, temperature, shade, and urea concentration. Ammonia concentrations affected the differential abundances of the highest number of microbial classes, followed by temperature and depth, while no microbial classes were differentially abundant in response to chlorophyll a or nitrite concentration. This study provides a baseline for long-term studies investigating how the microbial community in the James River rock pool ecosystem changes over time and in response to changes in environmental conditions.
