title: Prokaryotic Community Structure Driven by Salinity and Ionic Concentrations in Plateau Lakes of the Tibetan Plateau.
abstract: The prokaryotic community composition and diversity and the distribution patterns at various taxonomic levels across gradients of salinity and physiochemical properties in the surface waters of seven plateau lakes in the Qaidam Basin, Tibetan Plateau, were evaluated using Illumina MiSeq sequencing. These lakes included Lakes Keluke (salinity, <1 g/liter), Qing (salinity, 5.5 to 6.6 g/liter), Tuosu (salinity, 24 to 35 g/liter), Dasugan (salinity, 30 to 33 g/liter), Gahai (salinity, 92 to 96 g/liter), Xiaochaidan (salinity, 94 to 99 g/liter), and Gasikule (salinity, 317 to 344 g/liter). The communities were dominated by Bacteria in lakes with salinities of <100 g/liter and by Archaea in Lake Gasikule. The clades At12OctB3 and Salinibacter, previously reported only in hypersaline environments, were found in a hyposaline lake (salinity, 5.5 to 6.6 g/liter) at an abundance of ∼1.0%, indicating their ecological plasticity. Salinity and the concentrations of the chemical ions whose concentrations covary with salinity (Mg(2+), K(+), Cl(-), Na(+), SO4 (2-), and Ca(2+)) were found to be the primary environmental factors that directly or indirectly determined the composition and diversity at the level of individual clades as well as entire prokaryotic communities. The distribution patterns of two phyla, five classes, five orders, five families, and three genera were well predicted by salinity. The variation of the prokaryotic community structure also significantly correlated with the dissolved oxygen concentration, pH, the total nitrogen concentration, and the PO4 (3-) concentration. Such correlations varied depending on the taxonomic level, demonstrating the importance of comprehensive correlation analyses at various taxonomic levels in evaluating the effects of environmental variable factors on prokaryotic community structures. Our findings clarify the distribution patterns of the prokaryotic community composition in plateau lakes at the levels of individual clades as well as whole communities along gradients of salinity and ionic concentrations.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zhi-Ping
authors.initials: ZP
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Li-Li
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Miao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Fang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Li-Min
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing, People's Republic of China.|Institute of Shandong River Wetlands, Laiwu, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jia-Li
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China liuzhp@sun.im.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Zhi-Pei
authors.initials: ZP
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D001105:Archaea / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D058448:Biota; D055598:Chemical Phenomena; D007477:Ions / Q000032:analysis; D060106:Lakes / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000382:microbiology*; D056186:Metagenomics; D009994:Osmolar Concentration; D054712:Salinity; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D018609:Tibet
chemical_list: D007477:Ions