Investigation of Denitrifying Anaerobic Methane Oxidizing Microorganisms in Sediments of Taihu Lake

Denitrifying methane anaerobic oxidation (DAMO) not only makes a very important contribution to methane consumption in the ecosystem, but also connects the cycle between the two major elements of carbon and nitrogen, and has important research significance in the biogeochemical cycle. However, there is little research work on DAMO microorganisms in Taihu Lake. Therefore, this study constructed a characteristic map of the horizontal distribution of DAMO microorganisms in Taihu Lake sediments, and explored the number, diversity, community composition and main influencing factors of DAMO microorganisms in Taihu Lake sediments. DAMO microorganisms showed a trend of higher in the west and lower in the east. Illumina high-throughput sequencing showed that DAMO archaea and DAMO bacteria belonging to the order Methanosarcinales and Nitrospirales were detected in 17 samples. Spearman correlation analysis showed that the Nitrospirales order that DAMO bacteria belonged to was highly correlated with the in-situ parameters DO, ammonia nitrogen, nitrate nitrogen and TOC.