Human activities such as agriculture and mining are leading causes of water pollution worldwide. Individual contaminants are known to negatively affect microbial communities. However, the effect of multifaceted pollution on these communities is less well understood. We investigated, using next-generation sequencing of the 16S rRNA genes, the effects of multisource (i.e., fertilizer industry and mining) chronic pollution on bacterial and archaeal communities in water and sediments from the Olifants River catchment, South Africa. Water samples showed less microbial species diversity than sediments and both habitats displayed different microbial communities. Within each of these habitats, pollution had no effect on alpha diversity but shaped the microbial composition and taxonomy-based predicted functions. Certain prokaryotic taxa and functional groups were indicative of different degrees of pollution. Heterotrophic taxa (e.g., Flavobacterium sp.) and sulphur-oxidizing bacteria (i.e., Thiobacillus sp.) were indicators of pollution in water and sediments, respectively. Ultimately, this information could be used to develop microbial indicators of water quality degradation.

中文翻译：

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污染塑造了南非奥利凡茨河集水区河水和沉积物中的微生物群落

农业和采矿等人类活动是全球水污染的主要原因。已知个别污染物会对微生物群落产生负面影响。然而，人们对多方面污染对这些社区的影响知之甚少。我们使用 16S rRNA 基因的下一代测序研究了多源（即化肥工业和采矿业）慢性污染对来自南非 Olifants 河集水区的水和沉积物中细菌和古菌群落的影响。水样显示的微生物物种多样性低于沉积物，并且两个栖息地都显示出不同的微生物群落。在这些栖息地中的每一个中，污染对 alpha 多样性没有影响，但影响了微生物组成和基于分类学的预测功能。某些原核生物分类群和功能组指示不同程度的污染。异养类群（例如黄杆菌属）和硫氧化细菌（即硫杆菌属）分别是水和沉积物中污染的指标。最终，这些信息可用于开发水质退化的微生物指标。