Investigating monsoon and post-monsoon variabilities of bacterioplankton communities in a mangrove ecosystem

In mangrove environments, bacterioplankton communities constitute an important component of aquatic biota and play a major role in ecosystem processes. Variability of bacterioplankton communities from Sundarbans mangrove, located in the Indian subcontinent in South Asia and sits on the apex of Bay of Bengal, was investigated over monsoon and post-monsoon seasons. The study was undertaken in two stations in Sundarbans using 16S rRNA clone library and Illumina MiSeq approaches with focus on the functionally important members that participate in coastal biogeochemical cycling. Out of 544 sequenced clones, Proteobacteria dominated the study area (373 sequences) with persistence of two major classes, namely, Gammaproteobacteria and Alphaproteobacteria across both monsoon and post-monsoon seasons in both stations. Several sequences belonging to Sphingomonadales, Chromatiales, Alteromonadales, Oceanospirillales, and Bacteroidetes were encountered that are known to play important roles in coastal carbon cycling. Some sequences showed identity with published uncultured Planctomycetes and Chloroflexi highlighting their role in nitrogen cycling. The detection of two novel clades highlighted the existence of indigenous group of bacterioplankton that may play important roles in this ecosystem. The eubacterial V3–V4 region from environmental DNA extracted from the above two stations, followed by sequencing in Illumina MiSeq system, was also targeted in the study. A congruency between the clone library and Illumina approaches was observed. Strong variability in bacterioplankton community structure was encountered at a seasonal scale in link with precipitation. Drastic increase in sediment associated bacteria such as members of Firmicutes and Desulfovibrio was found in monsoon hinting possible resuspension of sediment-dwelling bacteria into the overlying water column. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed dissolved ammonium and dissolved nitrate to account for maximum variation observed in the bacterioplankton community structure. Overall, the study showed that a strong interplay exists between environmental parameters and observed variability in bacterioplankton communities as a result of precipitation which can ultimately influence processes and rates linked to coastal biogeochemical cycles.