A unique assemblage of cosmopolitan freshwater bacteria and higher community diversity differentiate an urbanized estuary from oligotrophic Lake Michigan.

ABSTRACT: Water quality is impacted significantly by urbanization. The delivery of increased nutrient loads to waterways is a primary characteristic of this land use change. Despite the recognized effects of nutrient loading on aquatic systems, the influence of urbanization on the bacterial community composition of these systems is not understood. We used massively-parallel sequencing of bacterial 16S rRNA genes to examine the bacterial assemblages in transect samples spanning the heavily urbanized estuary of Milwaukee, WI to the relatively un-impacted waters of Lake Michigan. With this approach, we found that genera and lineages common to freshwater lake epilimnia were common and abundant in both the high nutrient, urban-impacted waterways, and the low nutrient Lake Michigan. Although the two envir

SUBMITTER: Newton RJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4586452 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature