Archaeal community compositions in tilapia pond systems and their influencing factors.

Archaea, like the bacterial communities are gradually being realized as key players in the biogeochemical progress of water ecosystems. In this study, tilapia aquaculture ponds were used for an in-depth understanding of archaeal community compositions in water and surface sediment. Some of the main functions, as well as the communities' response patterns, to time variations, pond differences and some physio-chemical parameters were investigated. The results revealed the dominant phylum in both the water and surface sediment, as Euryarchaeota, while, the most abundant classes were: Halobacteria and Methanomicrobia respectively. Significant differences in the archaeal community compositions in the water and surface sediment, were observed in the early stages of cultivation, which became minimal at the later stage of the GIFT tilapia cultivation. Additionally to the differences in the most abundant classes, more OTUs were observed in water samples than in surface sediment samples. The methane generation could be attributed to the large proportion of methanogens found in both pond water and in the surface sediment. Furthermore, the archaeal community compositions in water and the surface sediment were shaped mainly by temporal variations and pond differences respectively. In the pond water, the archaeal community compositions were highly co-related to the concentration changes of ammonia, sulfate and total nitrogen; while in the surface sediment, the correlation to the content changes was significant in total phosphorus. The archaeal community compositions in surface sediment should be considered as an indicator for future environmental capacity studies in aquaculture.

Characterizing bacterial communities in tilapia pond surface sediment and their responses to pond differences and temporal variations.

Bacterial community compositions in the surface sediment of tilapia ponds and their responses to pond characteristics or seasonal variations were investigated. For that, three ponds with different stocking densities were selected to collect the samples. And the method of Illumina high-throughput sequencing was used to amplify the bacterial 16S rRNA genes. A total of 662, 876 valid reads and 5649 operational taxonomic units were obtained. Further analysis showed that the dominant phyla in all three ponds were Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi, and Acidobacteria. The phyla Planctomycetes, Firmicutes, Chlorobi, and Spirochaetae were also relatively abundant. Among the eight phyla, the abundances of only Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, and Spirochaetae were affected by seasonal variations, while seven of these (with the exception of Acidobacteria) were affected by pond differences. A comprehensive analysis of the richness and diversity of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene, and of the similarity in bacterial community composition in sediment also showed that the communities in tilapia pond sediment were shaped more by pond differences than by seasonal variations. Linear discriminant analysis further indicated that the influences of pond characteristics on sediment bacterial communities might be related to feed coefficients and stocking densities of genetically improved farmed tilapia (GIFT).

Bacterioplankton community analysis in tilapia ponds by Illumina high-throughput sequencing.

The changes of microbial community in aquaculture systems under the effects of stocking densities and seasonality were investigated in tilapia ponds. Total DNAs were extracted from the water samples, 16S rRNA gene was amplified and the bacterial community analyzed by Illumina high-throughput sequencing obtaining 3486 OTUs, from a total read of 715,842 sequences. Basing on the analysis of bacterial compositions, richness, diversity, bacterial 16S rRNA gene abundance, water sample comparisons and existence of specific bacterial taxa within three fish ponds in a 4 months period, the study conclusively observed that the dominant phylum in all water samples were similar, and they included; Proteobacteria, Cyanobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, Planctomycetes and Chlorobi, distributed in different proportions in the different months and ponds. The seasonal changes had a more pronounced effect on the bacterioplankton community than the stocking densities; however some differences between the ponds were more likely caused by feed coefficient than by stocking densities. At the same time, most bacterial communities were affected by the nutrient input except phylum Cyanobacteria that was also affected by the feed control of tilapia.