engleski

Bacterial diversity of Plitvice Lakes catchment area during the summer season

Background: The uniqueness of the Plitvice Lakes, a world-famous National Park, consists of the cascading lakes created by the constant biodynamic process of tufa barrier formation and growth. In addition to lakes, the biodiversity-rich aquatic ecosystem of National Park includes a large number of streams and rivers. Although it plays an important role in the tufa formation, the microbial community of this ecosystem is poorly researched1, and due to increasing anthropogenic pressure, it is prone to changes. Objectives: The aim of this study was to establish the structure and diversity of bacterial communities in aquatic ecosystems of Plitvice Lakes National Park. Therefore, we conducted research in the Plitvice Lakes catchment area during the summer season using a method that has not been used in this area so far. Methods: Water samples were collected in June 2019 at 24 points located at waterfalls connecting the lakes and at all surface streams and rivers belonging to the Plitvice lakes catchment area. The pair-end sequencing method of 16S rDNA was used for the taxonomic determination of the bacterial community. Results: The most abundant bacterial communities within the investigated area were affiliated to the phyla Actinobacteriota, Bacteroidota, Cyanobacteria, Proteobacteria, and Verrucomicrobiota. All these phyla are characteristic representatives of bacterioplankton in freshwater ecosystems. In general, bacterial populations collected at waterfalls were separated from other populations, with a significantly higher abundance of Actinobacteriota and the absence of Patescibacteria and Bdellovibrionota, found in stream and river samples.

Plitvice lakes, bacterial diversity, 16S rDNA

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