Thermal discharge-induced elevated seawater temperature alters richness, community composition and interactions of bacterioplankton assemblages in a coastal ecosystem.

To decipher the influence of elevated seawater temperature on seawater-associated microbiota, surface seawater were collected from the thermal discharge-impacted and control areas in the vicinity of a power plant, located at the southern coastal region of India. Bacterioplankton community composition of the collected samples was then investigated using high-throughput next-generation sequencing (NGS) of hyper-variable V3-V4 regions of 16S rRNA gene using standard protocol. The outcomes of our study will help in forecasting the consequences of future climate changes such as ocean warming on marine microbiota.