The Swire Institute of Marine Science and School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pok Fu Lam Road, Hong Kong SAR, Hong Kong.
Mar Environ Res. 2010 Jul;70(1):56-64. doi: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2010.03.002. Epub 2010 Mar 10.
Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis (T-RFLP) was used to track the changes of bacterial community compositions (BCC) in coastal surface sediments along an environmental pollution gradient between 2004 and 2006. BCC in the chronically contaminated sites showed the largest deviation from those in the adjacent sites. Surprisingly, BCC at two contrasting environments (oceanic vs. river-influenced) were more similar. Unexpectedly, the BCC did not recover (when compared to oceanic control site) even after 5 years of pollution abatement initiatives in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong. On the other hand, disposal of treated sewage for 5 years in one of the sites did not significantly affect the BCC. A striking seasonal variation in the BCC was observed at only the polluted sites. Although factors other than pollution gradients may explain the observed BCC patterns, the information presented here can be useful in predicting long-term effects of pollution on BCC. Furthermore, this study suggests that BCC analysis using T-RFLP is a faster, reliable and easier approach to monitor microbenthic community response to environmental pollution gradient in coastal sediments.
末端限制性片段长度多态性分析（T-RFLP）被用于追踪 2004 年至 2006 年期间沿环境污染梯度的沿海表层沉积物中细菌群落组成（BCC）的变化。在长期污染的地点，BCC 与相邻地点的差异最大。令人惊讶的是，在两个截然不同的环境（海洋与河流影响）中的 BCC 更为相似。令人意外的是，即使在香港维多利亚港的污染减排措施实施 5 年后，BCC 也没有恢复（与海洋对照点相比）。另一方面，在其中一个地点连续 5 年处理污水的处置并没有显著影响 BCC。仅在污染地点观察到 BCC 的显著季节性变化。尽管除了污染梯度以外的其他因素可能解释了所观察到的 BCC 模式，但这里提供的信息可用于预测污染对 BCC 的长期影响。此外，本研究表明，使用 T-RFLP 的 BCC 分析是一种更快、可靠和更容易的方法，可用于监测沿海沉积物中微生物群落对环境污染梯度的响应。
