brackish water aquaculture sediment bacteria sequencing

Brackish water is a habitat with varying salinity. Aquaculture can contribute to pollution enrichment in salty water environments. Different environmental pressures accelerate the spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) to varying degrees in aquaculture sediments. Nevertheless, the prevalence of ARGs in brackish aqueous environments remains a knowledge gap. This study applied PCR and 16S sequencing to identify the variations in ARGs, class 1 integron gene (intI1) and microbial communities in brackish water aquaculture sediment. The brackish water aquaculture area selected for this study was located in Rudong County, Jiangsu Province, China, close to the Yellow Sea. Nine sampling points were chosen for on-the-spot investigation. Sediment samples were collected on September 8th, 2021 (S1-S9, summer, early aquaculture) and January 7th, 2022 (S10-S18, winter, late aquaculture), respectively. S1-S9 represented the sampling points numbered 1-9, and S10-S18 was the second repetition. All the samples were collected thrice, mixed, and stored in a sample box with ice cubes.