Bacterial diversity and distribution in seven different estuarine sediments of Poyang Lake, China

In this study, bacterial community compositions in seven different estuarine sediments of Poyang Lake were analyzed using 16S rRNA gene-targeted metagenomic approach. Remarkable differences in the bacterial diversity were observed in these different estuarine sediments. Le, Chang and Rao river samples exhibited the higher bacterial diversity; the Fu river sample showed the less diversity. Bacterial richness and diversity were positively regulated by sediment inorganic phosphorus, and nitrite nitrogen, total phosphorus and inorganic phosphorus were found to be important drivers for bacterial community compositions. Proteobacteria, Acidobacteria, Firmicutes, Chloroflexi, Bacteroidetes, Planctomycetes, Gemmatimonadetes, Actinobacteria, Nitrospirae, and Verrucomicrobia were the major components of sediment bacterial communities. Among them, Proteobacteria was the most dominant phylum, followed by Acidobacteria and Firmicutes. Our study gives a comprehensive insight into the structure of bacterial community of the different estuarine sediments of Poyang Lake, indicating that the environmental factors played a key role in influencing the bacterial community composition in the freshwater ecosystem.