State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Key Laboratory of Ecological Safety and Sustainable Development in Arid Lands, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, 830011, People's Republic of China.
Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Biodiversity Conservation and Application in Arid Lands, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, 830011, People's Republic of China.
Microb Ecol. 2024 Nov 1;87(1):135. doi: 10.1007/s00248-024-02442-8.
Saline lakes, characterized by high salinity and limited nutrient availability, provide an ideal environment for studying extreme halophiles and their biogeochemical processes. The present study examined prokaryotic microbial communities and their ecological functions in lentic sediments (with the salinity gradient and time series) using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and a metagenomic approach. Our findings revealed a negative correlation between microbial diversity and salinity. The notable predominance of Archaea in high-salinity lakes signified a considerable alteration in the composition of the microbial community. The results indicate that elevated salinity promotes homogeneous selection pressures, causing substantial alterations in microbial diversity and community structure, and simultaneously hindering interactions among microorganisms. This results in a notable decrease in the complexity of microbial ecological networks, ultimately influencing the overall ecological functional responses of microbial communities such as carbon fixation, sulfur, and nitrogen metabolism. Overall, our findings reveal salinity drives a notable predominance of Archaea, selects for species adapted to extreme conditions, and decreases microbial community complexity within saline lake ecosystems.
盐湖以高盐度和有限的养分可用性为特征，为研究极端嗜盐菌及其生物地球化学过程提供了理想的环境。本研究使用 16S rRNA 扩增子测序和宏基因组学方法，研究了静水沉积物（具有盐度梯度和时间序列）中的原核微生物群落及其生态功能。我们的研究结果表明，微生物多样性与盐度呈负相关。在高盐度湖泊中，古菌的显著优势表明微生物群落的组成发生了重大变化。结果表明，高盐度促进了均匀的选择压力，导致微生物多样性和群落结构发生了实质性变化，同时阻碍了微生物之间的相互作用。这导致微生物生态网络的复杂性显著降低，最终影响微生物群落的整体生态功能响应，如碳固定、硫和氮代谢。总的来说，我们的研究结果表明，盐度驱动了古菌的显著优势，选择了适应极端条件的物种，并降低了盐湖生态系统中微生物群落的复杂性。
