The response of a 16S ribosomal RNA fragment amplified community to lead, zinc and copper pollution in a Shanghai field trial

The pervasive nature of metal pollution can be harmful to human health and has the potential to cause substantial negative impact to the biosphere. To investigate the impact of anthropogenic metal pollution commonly found in high concentrations in industrial, agricultural and urban environments, 16S ribosomal RNA amplicon sequencing was used to track change in the amplified microbial community after perturbation with high concentrations of metal contamination in a large-scale field experiment in Shanghai, China.