Seasonal dynamics of the coastal bacterioplankton at intensive fish-farming areas of the Yellow Sea, China revealed by high-throughput sequencing

Marine aquaculture areas are facing stressed environmental challenges, especially the degradation of coastal ecosystems. Here a coordinated time-series study was used to investigate the coastal bacterioplankton biodiversity dynamics of the Yellow Sea, China. Bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequencing revealed a temporal pattern of decreasing of diversity in summer. Functional prediction indicated that metabolic pathways related to the adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-binding cassette transporters and other membrane transporters were significantly enriched in May, while the genetic information processing category was most abundant in March. The May microbiomes showed most significant positive correlation with phosphate concentration, while the August and November microbiomes correlated with temperature and chemical oxygen demand (COD) most, and the March microbiomes showed significant correlation with Cu2+ level, pH and salinity. The correlations between representative bacteria and environmental parameters revealed in this study may provide insights into the potential influences of human aquaculture activities, on the biodiversity of coastal bacterioplankton. •Bacterioplankton diversity at aquaculture areas in Yellow Sea, China was analyzed.•Bacterioplankton diversity was lowest in summer.•Proteobacteria were the most abundant bacteria across the year.•Phosphate affected bacterioplankton composition significantly in spring.•Metabolism bioactivities were enriched in moderate seasons (May and November).