Disentangling the distinct mechanisms shaping the subsurface oil reservoir bacterial and archaeal communities across northern China

• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148074
• Publication Date: 2021-05-27T16:40:04Z
• Authors: Yuan Yun; Ziyu Gui; Yu Chen; Xuefeng Tian; Peike Gao; Guoqiang Li; Ting Ma
• Keywords: 0303 health sciences; 03 medical and health sciences; 13. Climate action; 15. Life on land

Microbes in surface ecosystem exhibit strong biogeographic patterns, and are less apparent after human management. However, in contrast with the considerable knowledge on the surface ecosystem, the microbial biogeographic patterns in deep subsurface ecosystem under artificial disturbance is poorly understood. Here, we explored the spatial scale-dependence patterns of bacterial and archaeal communities in oil reservoirs under different artificial flooding duration and environmental conditions across northern China. Bacterial and archaeal communities of oil reservoirs exhibited distinct assembly patterns with a stronger distance-decay relationship in archaeal communities than bacterial communities, as different environmental factors linked to the diversity of bacteria and archaea. Specifically, bacterial and archaeal network properties revealed a significant correlation with spatial reservoir isolation by distinct co-occurrence patterns. The co-occurrences of bacterial communities were more complex in high temperature and alkaline pH, while archaeal co-occurrences were more frequent in low temperature and neutral pH. Potential functions in bacterial communities were more connected with chemoheterotrophy, whereas methanogenesis was abundant in archaeal communities, as confirmed by both keystone taxa and main ecological clusters in networks. This revealed that different mechanisms underlain geography and co-occurrence patterns of bacteria and archaea in oil reservoirs, providing a new insight for understanding biogeography and coexistence theory in deep subsurface ecosystem.