Preliminary study on the changes of bacterial community structure in Qingcaosha Reservoir during water storage period

In order to investigate the changes in water quality and the bacterial community structure in Qingcaosha Reservoir during water storage and supply period, the microorganisms in water body were studied by microbial culture counting and polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DEEG) technique. Results showed that the water quality had been improved significantly and the nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations significantly reduced after the Yangtze River water flowed into the reservoir. The number of culturable microorganisms in the influent and the reservoir changed with the seasons, and there were more microorganisms in the influent than these in the reservoir during spring and summer, and fewer in autumn and winter, and the precipitation of suspended microorganisms in the water caused the increase of organic matter content in the sediment. PCR-DGGE results showed that bacterial community structure in the reservoir changed with the seasons, and the microbial community diversity was the highest in summer and the lowest in autumn. The cluster analysis showed that the similarity of microbial community structure of water and sediment samples was 62%, which might be due to the contribution of the precipitation of the suspended microorganisms. The dominant microbial species in water had high similarity with α, β-Proteobacteria, Flavobacterium, Rheinheimera, Prochlorococcus, Synechococcus and Marine metagenome, indicating that Qingcaosha Reservoir faced the risk of algae bloom and seawater intrusion. The results provide the fundamental understanding on reservoir operation and can be used as reference for future studies.