Microbial communities in sediments of Lagos Lagoon, Nigeria: Elucidation of community structure and potential impacts of contamination by municipal and industrial wastes

Frontiers in Microbiology

Sunday A. Adebusoye¹  Esther O. Ugoji¹  Mathew O. Ilori¹  Chioma C Obi¹  Olukayode O. Amund¹  William James Hickey² 

[1] University of Lagos;University of Wisconsin-Madison;

关键词: Africa;    Hydrocarbons;    sediment;    Microbial Diversity;    estuary;    Illumina;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fmicb.2016.01213

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Estuarine sediments are significant repositories of anthropogenic contaminants, and thus understanding the impacts of contamination upon microbial communities in these environments is important to understand potential effects on estuaries as a whole. The Lagos Lagoon (Nigeria) is one of Africa’s largest estuarine ecosystems, and is impacted by hydrocarbon pollutants and other industrial and municipal wastes. The goal of this study was to elucidate microbial community structure in Lagos Lagoon sediments to identify groups that may be adversely affected by contamination, and those that may serve as degraders of environmental contaminants, especially polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). Sediment samples were collected from sites that ranged in types and levels of anthropogenic impacts. Sediments were characterized for a range of physicochemical properties, and microbial community structure was determined by Illumina sequencing of 16S rRNA gene sequences. Microbial diversity (species richness and evenness) in the Apapa and Eledu sediments was reduced compared to that of the Ofin site, and communities of both of the former two were dominated by a single operational taxonomic unit (OTU) assigned to the family Helicobacteraceae (Epsilonproteobacteria). In the Ofin community, Epsilonproteobacteria were minor constituents, and major groups were Cyanobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes, which were all minor in the Apapa and Eledu sediments. Sediment oxygen demand (SOD), a broad indicator of contamination, was identified by multivariate analyses as strongly correlated with variation in alphadiversity. Environmental variables that explained betadiversity patterns included SOD, as well as levels of naphthalene, acenaphthylene, cobalt, cadmium, total organic matter or nitrate. Of 582 OTU identified, abundance of 167 was significantly correlated (false discovery rate q ≤ 0.05) to environmental variables. The largest group of OTU correlated with PAH levels were PAH/hydrocarbon-degrading genera of the Oceanospirillales order (Gammaproteobacteria), which were most abundant in the hydrocarbon-contaminated Apapa sediment. Similar Oceanospirillales taxa are responsive to marine oil spills and thus may present a unifying theme in marine microbiology as bacteria adapted for degradation of high hydrocarbon loads, and may represent a potential means for intrinsic remediation in the case of the Lagos Lagoon sediments.

【 授权许可】

Unknown