Long-term exposure to anthropogenic stressors can lead to perturbations in microbiomes, either selecting for novel and biotechnologically important biotypes, or reductions in the microbial diversity and disequilibrium of ecosystem services. Consequently, analysis of variations in microbial structure and function in stressful environments remains a critical issue in microbial ecology. In this study, the taxonomic structure of bacterial communities inhabiting tannery waste dumpsite soils was evaluated comparatively with those from non-contaminated soils using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Furthermore, the metabolic potential of these communities was inferred from community level physiological profiling fingerprints. The dumpsite has been receiving tannery waste since 1982; hence, the soils are laden with heavy metals including chromium, zinc, sodium, and potassium. Consequently, the following significant differences between bacterial communities from contaminated and non-contaminated soils were observed: (1) bacterial communities from the contaminated soils were characterized by lower species diversity, albeit at comparable species evenness (Simpson index); (2) long term contamination of soil shifted the bacterial community structure to a distinct core microbiome dominated by bacterial groups such as Halomonas, Balneolaceae, Aliifodinibius, Serinicoccus, Gracilimonas, Marinobater, Penticoccus, Fordinicurvata, Dietzia, and Norcadioides. These are characteristic of saline, metal-laden environments and have potentially high organo-pollutant degradative properties; and (3) bacterial communities from the contaminated soils exhibited a robust metabolic potential utilizing both natural and anthropogenically derived polymers at a higher rate. Overall, these results highlight tannery waste dumpsite soils as microbial diversity hotspots and potential reservoirs for exploration of novel biotechnological tools for bioremediation and industrial applications.

长期暴露于人为压力源会导致微生物群落的扰动，或者选择新的和对生物技术重要的生物类型，或者减少微生物多样性和生态系统服务的不平衡。因此，在压力环境下分析微生物结构和功能的变化仍然是微生物生态学中的关键问题。在这项研究中，使用16S rRNA基因测序技术对居住在制革厂垃圾场土壤中的细菌群落的分类结构与未污染土壤中的细菌群落进行了比较评价。此外，这些群落的代谢潜能可以从群落水平的生理特征指纹图谱中推断出来。自1982年以来，该垃圾场一直在接收制革厂废物；因此，土壤中充满了重金属，包括铬，锌，钠，和钾。因此，观察到来自受污染土壤和未受污染土壤的细菌群落之间存在以下显着差异：（1）来自受污染土壤的细菌群落的特征是物种多样性较低，尽管具有相同的物种均匀度（辛普森指数）；（2）长期的土壤污染使细菌群落结构转移到由诸如盐单胞菌，Balneolaceae，Aliifodinibius，Serinicoccus，Gracilimonas，Marinobater，Penticoccus，Fordinicurvata，迪茨氏和Norcadioides。这些是含盐，金属含量高的环境的特征，并且具有潜在的高有机污染物降解特性；（3）来自被污染土壤的细菌群落以较高的速率利用天然和人为来源的聚合物表现出强大的代谢潜能。总体而言，这些结果突出了制革厂垃圾场土壤，将其作为微生物多样性的热点和潜在的储藏库，以探索用于生物修复和工业应用的新型生物技术工具。