Insights on aquatic microbiome of the Indian Sundarbans mangrove areas

A first-of-its-kind study reveals how environmental stressors such as salinity, pollution, eutrophication, and land-use changes shape microbial communities in the Indian Sundarbans mangrove areas. Researchers analyzed bacterial and archaeal communities in estuarine water from Matla River and Thakuran River using 16S rRNA gene-based amplicon approaches, finding that halophilic marine bacteria like Flavobacteriaceae and OM1 clade dominate in low-nutrient coastal waters, while hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria such as Oceanospirillaceae and Spongiibacteraceae thrive under higher eutrophic conditions. Rhodobacteracea emerged as a consistently abundant family across both sites. Redundancy analysis showed that total nitrogen and dissolved inorganic nutrients influenced microbial composition in open marine water, whereas salinity and total nitrogen drove changes in island site microbes. This study underscores the complex interplay between anthropogenic pressures and mangrove microbiome dynamics, though it calls for more systematic sampling to fully assess pollution impacts.

Dhal, P. K., Kopprio, G. A., & Gärdes, A. (2020). Insights on aquatic microbiome of the Indian Sundarbans mangrove areas. Plos One, 15(2), e0221543. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0221543