Microbial community assembly along a groundwater-hypersaline lake continuum in the Badain Jaran Desert.
5 affiliations
- 1CUG-HKU Joint Centre for Coastal Groundwater and Ecosystem Studies, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
- 2Archaeal Biology Centre, Synthetic Biology Research Center, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Marine Microbiome Engineering, Key Laboratory of Marine Microbiome Engineering of Guangdong Higher Education Institutes, Institute for Advanced Study, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
- 3Shenzhen Institute of Research and Innovation, The University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen 518057, China.
- 4Department of Geosciences, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL 33431, United States.
- 5State Key Laboratory of Soil Pollution Control and Safety, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China.
Abstract
Microbial communities along groundwater-hypersaline lake continua encounter steep physicochemical gradients over short distances, yet how hydrological connectivity and geochemical gradients jointly shape community assembly remains poorly understood. Here, we combined hydrogeochemical profiling, 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, indicator species analysis, null-model inference, and predictive functional profiling to characterize community composition, assembly processes, and functional potential across 88 samples at South Sumujaran Lake, Badain Jaran Desert, China. The samples spanned fresh groundwater in two transects, brackish-to-saline groundwater in the transition zone, and hypersaline lake water along a hydrologically connected continuum, covering a more than 300-fold range in salinity. Despite hydrological connectivity, lake water communities were almost completely distinct from those in the two groundwater transects and the transition zone. The transition zone also supported a distinct set of indicator taxa, suggesting that its community composition was not explained by mixing alone. Assembly processes shifted along the continuum: dispersal limitation was the most prevalent process system-wide and occurred within the two low-salinity groundwater transects but not in the transition zone or hypersaline lake, whereas homogeneous selection increasingly structured communities toward these higher-salinity zones. Predicted functional profiles differed little between the two groundwater transects but markedly between groundwater and lake water. This zone-specific pattern helps explain how steep solute gradients structure microbial communities along hydrologically connected flow paths in groundwater-fed terminal lakes of arid regions.
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BibTeX
@article{lu2026microbial,
title = {{Microbial community assembly along a groundwater-hypersaline lake continuum in the Badain Jaran Desert.}},
author = {Meiqing Lu and Xiaolang Zhang and Jiu Jimmy Jiao and Jinchao Zuo and Hailong Li and Meng Li},
journal = {FEMS microbiology ecology},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1093/femsec/fiag113},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42832027},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Microbial community assembly along a groundwater-hypersaline lake continuum in the Badain Jaran Desert.
AU - Meiqing Lu
AU - Xiaolang Zhang
AU - Jiu Jimmy Jiao
AU - Jinchao Zuo
AU - Hailong Li
AU - Meng Li
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
JO - FEMS microbiology ecology
DO - 10.1093/femsec/fiag113
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42832027
AB - Microbial communities along groundwater-hypersaline lake continua encounter steep physicochemical gradients over short distances, yet how hydrological connectivity and geochemical gradients jointly shape community assembly remains poorly understood. Here, we combined hydrogeochemical profiling, 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, indicator species analysis, null-model inference, and predictive functional profiling to characterize community composition, assembly processes, and functional potential across 88 samples at South Sumujaran Lake, Badain Jaran Desert, China. The samples spanned fresh groundwater in two transects, brackish-to-saline groundwater in the transition zone, and hypersaline lake water along a hydrologically connected continuum, covering a more than 300-fold range in salinity. Despite hydrological connectivity, lake water communities were almost completely distinct from those in the two groundwater transects and the transition zone. The transition zone also supported a distinct set of indicator taxa, suggesting that its community composition was not explained by mixing alone. Assembly processes shifted along the continuum: dispersal limitation was the most prevalent process system-wide and occurred within the two low-salinity groundwater transects but not in the transition zone or hypersaline lake, whereas homogeneous selection increasingly structured communities toward these higher-salinity zones. Predicted functional profiles differed little between the two groundwater transects but markedly between groundwater and lake water. This zone-specific pattern helps explain how steep solute gradients structure microbial communities along hydrologically connected flow paths in groundwater-fed terminal lakes of arid regions.
SN - 0168-6496
SN - 1574-6941
ER -