Cyanobacteria in wetlands of the industrialized Sambalpur District of India

Characteristics of microbial community structure and influencing factors of Yangcheng Lake and rivers entering Yangcheng Lake during the wet season

Yangcheng Lake, a typical fishery lake in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, is threatened by eutrophication. As the main performers of biogeochemical cycles, microorganisms affect the ecological stability of the lake. To study the structural characteristics of the microbial community in Yangcheng Lake and rivers entering Yangcheng Lake and the response relationship with environmental factors, the microbial community was categorized based on the contour of Yangcheng Lake, the major rivers entering Yangcheng Lake, and the pollution sources. The distribution characteristics of seven physicochemical indices were analyzed, including total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), water temperature (WT), pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), and ratio of total nitrogen to total phosphorus (TN/TP). Characterization of microbial community structure based on 16S rRNA high-flux sequencing technology and ANOSIM analysis were used to explore the differences in the relative abundance of microorganisms at each sampling point in the lake and rivers, and redundancy analysis (RDA) was used to analyze the relationship between the microbial community and physicochemical factors. The results showed that the dominant phyla, genera of microorganisms, and the total number of OTUs in the lake and rivers were similar. The dominant phyla included Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Cyanobacteria, and Verrucomicrobia; the dominant genera included the hgcI clade, CL500-29 marine group, Microcystis PCC-7914, Chloroplast_norank, Clade III_norank, and Flavobacterium. ANOSIM analyses revealed that the microbial community of Yangcheng Lake exhibited an association with geographical space, while the microbial community in the rivers that was linked to the type of pollution source. Redundancy analysis (RDA) indicated that dissolved oxygen (DO), total nitrogen (TN), and pH were significantly correlated with the dominant phyla in Yangcheng Lake (p < 0.05), while total nitrogen (TN), water temperature(WT), and the ratio of total nitrogen to total phosphorus (TN/TP) were significantly related with the dominant genera in Yangcheng Lake (p < 0.05). Total nitrogen (TN) was also significantly linked to the dominant phyla and genera of the tributaries (p < 0.05). Despite the structural similarities in microbial communities between Yangcheng Lake and its inflowing rivers, environmental factors demonstrated significant associations with these communities, providing crucial data support for pollution prevention and the ecological restoration of Yangcheng Lake.

Hydroecology of Argyroneta aquatica’s Habitat in Hantangang River Geopark, South Korea

The water spider (Argyroneta aquatic) is the only known spider to live a fully aquatic life. Therefore, it has been the subject of a series of studies on various aspects of its unique biology such as its reproductive behavior, sexual dimorphism, physiology, genetics, and silk. However, there have been relatively few studies on the hydroecology of where water spiders live. The water spider habitat in Eundae-ri, Yeoncheon is the only habitat for A. aquatica, a globally rare species, in South Korea. In this region, the water level of the wetland is automatically adjusted to groundwater owing to continued drying. Here, the surface water, wetland, and groundwater near the A. aquatica habitat were studied using hydrochemical, microbiological, and correlation analyses. The hydrochemical properties—water temperature, pH, electrical conductivity, dissolved oxygen (DO), oxidation reduction potential, and turbidity—of the surface water and wetland were similar. The Piper diagrams revealed that the wetlands, surface water, and most of the groundwater portrayed Ca-HCO3-type properties, whereas only areas where the water level of the wetland was controlled displayed Na-HCO3-type properties. Furthermore, the NO3 content was too low to be detected in the wetland, indicating clean and non-polluted water conditions; additionally, heavier oxygen-hydrogen isotopes were observed because these regions were climatically affected by the wetland. The dominant bacteria were Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Cyanobacteria, Verrucomicrobia, and Nitrospirae. The correlation analysis revealed that the major environmental control factors of the A. aquatica habitat were DO, temperature, and pH, and the related bacteria were Cyanobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Verrucomicrobia.

Continuous and Synoptic Assessment of Indian Inland Waters for Harmful Algae Blooms

Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms (CyanoHABs) are progressively becoming a major water quality, socioeconomic, and health hazard worldwide. In India, there are frequent episodes of severe CyanoHABs, which are left untreated due to a lack of awareness and monitoring infrastructure, affecting the economy of the country gravely. In this study, for the first time, we present a country-wide analysis of CyanoHABs in India by developing a novel interactive cloud-based dashboard called "CyanoKhoj" in Google Earth Engine (GEE) which uses Sentinel-3 Ocean and Land Colour Instrument (OLCI) remotely sensed datasets. The main goal of this study was to showcase the utility of CyanoKhoj for rapid monitoring and discuss the widespread CyanoHABs problems across India. We demonstrate the utility of Cyanokhoj by including select case studies of lakes and reservoirs geographically spread across five states: Bargi and Gandhisagar Dams in Madhya Pradesh, Hirakud Reservoir in Odisha, Ukai Dam in Gujarat, Linganamakki Reservoir in Karnataka, and Pulicat Lake in Tamil Nadu. These sites were studied from September to November 2018 using CyanoKhoj, which is capable of near-real-time monitoring and country-wide assessment of CyanoHABs. We used CyanoKhoj to prepare spatiotemporal maps of Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) content and Cyanobacterial Cell Density (CCD) to study the local spread of the CyanoHABs and their phenology in these waterbodies. A first-ever all-India CCD map is also presented for the year 2018, which highlights the spatial spread of CyanoHABs throughout the country (32 large waterbodies across India with severe bloom: CCD>2,500,000). Results indicate that CyanoHABs are most prevalent in nutrient-rich waterbodies prone to industrial and other nutrient-rich discharges. A clear temporal evolution of the blooms showed that they are dominant during the post-monsoon season (September-October) when the nutrient concentrations in the waterbodies are at their peak, and they begin to decline towards winter (November-December). CyanoKhoj is an open-source tool that can have a significant broader impact in mapping CyanoHABs not only throughout cyanobacteria data-scarce India, but on a global level using archived and future Sentinel-3A/B OLCI data.

Bacterial diversity assessment of world's largest sewage-fed fish farms with special reference to water quality: a Ramsar site

Bacterial community structure is one of the essential components of aquaculture dynamics and plays an important role in maintaining wetland health. The present work is an effort to study the structure of bacterial communities in the world's largest sewage-fed fish farms, the East Kolkata Wetlands (EKWs), along with their predicted functional metabolic pathways and correlation with environmental variables. Sequencing data analysis revealed the abundance of genera such as Arcobacter (0-50%), Pseudomonas (0-15%), Sulfurospirillum (0-9%), Cloacibacterium (0-6%), hgcI clade (7-29%), C39 (0-9%), V6 (3-36%), Fluiivicola (1-6%) and Cyanobium (3-8%) in the EKWs. Further, water quality analysis of three treatment groups, i.e. Sewage, Sewage F-1 and Sewage F-2, revealed that dissolved oxygen (DO), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) differed significantly and violated the standard prescribed norms (Central Pollution Control Board, CPCB, New Delhi) for fishery propagation and irrigation in India. Further, the correlation matrix analysis between the abundance of bacterial genera and environmental variables indicated that DO, BOD and COD were mainly responsible for bacterial community structure and their proliferation in the EKWs. Our results indicated that the abundance of genera such as Arcobacter, Pseudomonas, Sulfurospirillum and Cloacibacterium has an inverse relationship with BOD and COD. Our observations based on the bacterial community structure and deteriorated water quality indicate the ineffective functioning and poor management of this man-made constructed wetland.