Nitrate determines the bacterial habitat specialization and impacts microbial functions in a subsurface karst cave.

ABSTRACT: Karst caves are usually considered as natural laboratories to study pristine microbiomes in subsurface biosphere. However, effects of the increasingly detected nitrate in underground karst ecosystem due to the acid rain impact on microbiota and their functions in subsurface karst caves have remained largely unknown. In this study, samples of weathered rocks and sediments were collected from the Chang Cave, Hubei province and subjected to high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA genes. The results showed that nitrate significantly impacted bacterial compositions, interactions, and functions in different habitats. Bacterial communities clustered according to their habitats with distinguished indicator groups identified for each individual habitat. Nitrate shaped the overall bacterial communiti

SUBMITTER: Liu X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9947541 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature