Diversity of airborne bacterial communities in sandstorm area of Taklimakan

Abstract:

[Objective] Aimed to clarify the dynamic changes of airborne bacterial species and community diversity in sandstorm source areas in Xinjiang, we collected air samples from the dust source areas in the hinterland of Taklimakan and surroundings, and analyzed the community structure of airborne bacteria in the early, middle and late stages of sandstorm occurrence. [Methods] Based on the Illumina HiSeq sequencing platform, we constructed the 16S rRNA small fragments library by sequencing using double-end sequencing. [Results] The dust storm source bacteria belonged to 37 genera and affiliated to 4 phyla, and Proteobacteria accounted for 67.6%, Bacteroidetes accounted for 17.6%, Actinobacteria accounted for 11.7%, Firmicutes accounted for 2.9%. At genus level, there were altogether 8 different dominant genera in Xinjiang sandstorm source area, and the Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling result showed the significant differences in bacterial community composition at different sampling sites in different periods. The canonical correspondence analysis showed that the influence of airborne bacterial diversity in sandstorm area with environmental factors was as follows:altitude > latitude > longitude > humidity > air pressure > temperature with no significant difference. [Conclusion] The diversity and abundance of airborne bacterial community in the sandstorm source area in Xinjiang were very high. The differences of air bacterial community composition in the early, middle and late stages of sandstorm were significant in different areas. The influence of sandstorm on the indigenous bacterial communities in the five source areas was extremely significant.