Study of Heavy Metals and Microbial Communities in Contaminated Sediments Along an Urban Estuary
Estuarine sediments are increasingly contaminated by heavy metals as a result of urbanization and human activities. Continuous multi-heavy metal accumulation in the ecosystem can provoke new effects on top of the complex environmental interactions already present in estuarine ecosystems. It is impor...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-11-01
|
| Series: | Frontiers in Marine Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.741912/full |
| _version_ | 1818929054155276288 |
|---|---|
| author | Jun Yi Linus Shing Him Lo Hongbin Liu Hongbin Liu Pei-Yuan Qian Pei-Yuan Qian Jinping Cheng Jinping Cheng Jinping Cheng |
| author_facet | Jun Yi Linus Shing Him Lo Hongbin Liu Hongbin Liu Pei-Yuan Qian Pei-Yuan Qian Jinping Cheng Jinping Cheng Jinping Cheng |
| author_sort | Jun Yi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Estuarine sediments are increasingly contaminated by heavy metals as a result of urbanization and human activities. Continuous multi-heavy metal accumulation in the ecosystem can provoke new effects on top of the complex environmental interactions already present in estuarine ecosystems. It is important to study their integrated influence on imperative microbial communities to reflect on the environmental and ecological risks they may impose. Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy analysis for five metals Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, and Zn showed that Cr and Cu concentrations in intertidal sediments of the urbanized Yangtze River estuary in China have consistently exceeded respective threshold effect concentration (TEC) levels. The geo-accumulation and potential ecological risk index results of the five metals showed that all sampling sites were weakly to moderately polluted, and at considerable to high ecological risk, respectively. Redundancy and correlation analyses showed that Zn followed by Cr in the ecosystem were explanatory of the shifts in recorded microbial community structures. However, the spatial variation in metal concentrations did not correspond to the selection of metal resistance genes (MRGs). Unlike many other dominant bacterial taxa, most of the sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) and associated sulfate respiration as the dominant microbially contributed ecological function were found to negatively correlate with Zn and total heavy metal pollution. Zn concentration was proposed to be a potent indicator for heavy metal pollution-associated microbial community compositional shifts under urbanized estuarine conditions. The associations between heavy metals and estuarine microbial communities in this study demonstrate the influence of heavy metals on microbial community structure and adaptations that is often overshadowed by environmental factors (i.e., salinity and nutrients). |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-20T03:38:42Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-fda216a161c347678d5f161ef4fc5764 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2296-7745 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-20T03:38:42Z |
| publishDate | 2021-11-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Marine Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-fda216a161c347678d5f161ef4fc57642022-12-21T19:54:49ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Marine Science2296-77452021-11-01810.3389/fmars.2021.741912741912Study of Heavy Metals and Microbial Communities in Contaminated Sediments Along an Urban EstuaryJun Yi0Linus Shing Him Lo1Hongbin Liu2Hongbin Liu3Pei-Yuan Qian4Pei-Yuan Qian5Jinping Cheng6Jinping Cheng7Jinping Cheng8State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, Shanghai, ChinaHong Kong Branch of the Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution and Department of Ocean Science, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR, ChinaHong Kong Branch of the Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution and Department of Ocean Science, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR, ChinaThe Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), Guangzhou, ChinaHong Kong Branch of the Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution and Department of Ocean Science, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR, ChinaThe Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), Guangzhou, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, Shanghai, ChinaHong Kong Branch of the Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution and Department of Ocean Science, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR, ChinaThe Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), Guangzhou, ChinaEstuarine sediments are increasingly contaminated by heavy metals as a result of urbanization and human activities. Continuous multi-heavy metal accumulation in the ecosystem can provoke new effects on top of the complex environmental interactions already present in estuarine ecosystems. It is important to study their integrated influence on imperative microbial communities to reflect on the environmental and ecological risks they may impose. Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy analysis for five metals Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, and Zn showed that Cr and Cu concentrations in intertidal sediments of the urbanized Yangtze River estuary in China have consistently exceeded respective threshold effect concentration (TEC) levels. The geo-accumulation and potential ecological risk index results of the five metals showed that all sampling sites were weakly to moderately polluted, and at considerable to high ecological risk, respectively. Redundancy and correlation analyses showed that Zn followed by Cr in the ecosystem were explanatory of the shifts in recorded microbial community structures. However, the spatial variation in metal concentrations did not correspond to the selection of metal resistance genes (MRGs). Unlike many other dominant bacterial taxa, most of the sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) and associated sulfate respiration as the dominant microbially contributed ecological function were found to negatively correlate with Zn and total heavy metal pollution. Zn concentration was proposed to be a potent indicator for heavy metal pollution-associated microbial community compositional shifts under urbanized estuarine conditions. The associations between heavy metals and estuarine microbial communities in this study demonstrate the influence of heavy metals on microbial community structure and adaptations that is often overshadowed by environmental factors (i.e., salinity and nutrients).https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.741912/fullestuarine sedimentsmicrobial communitiesheavy metalsmetal resistance genesecological functions |
| spellingShingle | Jun Yi Linus Shing Him Lo Hongbin Liu Hongbin Liu Pei-Yuan Qian Pei-Yuan Qian Jinping Cheng Jinping Cheng Jinping Cheng Study of Heavy Metals and Microbial Communities in Contaminated Sediments Along an Urban Estuary Frontiers in Marine Science estuarine sediments microbial communities heavy metals metal resistance genes ecological functions |
| title | Study of Heavy Metals and Microbial Communities in Contaminated Sediments Along an Urban Estuary |
| title_full | Study of Heavy Metals and Microbial Communities in Contaminated Sediments Along an Urban Estuary |
| title_fullStr | Study of Heavy Metals and Microbial Communities in Contaminated Sediments Along an Urban Estuary |
| title_full_unstemmed | Study of Heavy Metals and Microbial Communities in Contaminated Sediments Along an Urban Estuary |
| title_short | Study of Heavy Metals and Microbial Communities in Contaminated Sediments Along an Urban Estuary |
| title_sort | study of heavy metals and microbial communities in contaminated sediments along an urban estuary |
| topic | estuarine sediments microbial communities heavy metals metal resistance genes ecological functions |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.741912/full |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT junyi studyofheavymetalsandmicrobialcommunitiesincontaminatedsedimentsalonganurbanestuary AT linusshinghimlo studyofheavymetalsandmicrobialcommunitiesincontaminatedsedimentsalonganurbanestuary AT hongbinliu studyofheavymetalsandmicrobialcommunitiesincontaminatedsedimentsalonganurbanestuary AT hongbinliu studyofheavymetalsandmicrobialcommunitiesincontaminatedsedimentsalonganurbanestuary AT peiyuanqian studyofheavymetalsandmicrobialcommunitiesincontaminatedsedimentsalonganurbanestuary AT peiyuanqian studyofheavymetalsandmicrobialcommunitiesincontaminatedsedimentsalonganurbanestuary AT jinpingcheng studyofheavymetalsandmicrobialcommunitiesincontaminatedsedimentsalonganurbanestuary AT jinpingcheng studyofheavymetalsandmicrobialcommunitiesincontaminatedsedimentsalonganurbanestuary AT jinpingcheng studyofheavymetalsandmicrobialcommunitiesincontaminatedsedimentsalonganurbanestuary |