Microeukaryotic Variation in Local Sediments with the Influence of Sea-Crossing Bridge Construction: A Case Study in East China
Microeukaryotic Variation in Local Sediments with the Influence of Sea-Crossing Bridge Construction: A Case Study in East China
Hualong Jiang1, Tao Li2,3*, Jing Xiang3, Hanqing Yang3 and Maolin He3
ABSTRACT
Assessing the ecological status of benthic habitats is important in marine ecosystem management. Sea-crossing bridges have been constructed worldwide to facilitate human travels and transactions. However, limited information is available on the ecological impacts of bridge constructions on local microeukaryotic compositions and functional shifts. In the present study, next-generation sequencing and bioinformatics analyses were performed to compare changes of microeukaryotic communities in local sediments influenced by sea-crossing bridge construction. Relatively low levels of alpha diversity and high levels of beta diversity were observed in samples influenced by bridge construction (group EG). The decreased abundance of Chloroplastida and increased abundance of Animalia in group EG suggested that engineering activities induced environmental disturbance, which impaired the ecosystem balance. LEfSe and SIMPER approaches revealed a significant abundance of ectomycorrhizal fungi in group EG, while these taxa were rare in sediments of a control group. Increased abundance and metabolic functions of these rare ectomycorrhizal fungi suggested that rare microeukaryotes should play fundamentally ecological roles in local ecosystems, especially when environmental perturbations occurred. This report is the first to address the ecological impacts of sea-crossing bridge construction on local microeukaryotic communities, which can improve our understanding of local microbial responses to marine infrastructure construction.
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