Temporal and Depth-Driven Variability of Pelagic Bacterial Communities in Lake Erie: Biofilm and Plankton Dynamics

Abstract

Despite constituting an important component of freshwater ecosystems, biofilm assemblages have remained relatively understudied compared to plankton, especially in freshwater systems such as the western basin of Lake Erie (WBLE). This study therefore aimed to elucidate temporal and vertical shifts of microbial communities of planktonic and biofilm growth on artificial substrates in the WBLE water column at discrete depths, investigating the overlap of shared taxa between community types. Sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene revealed concurrent biofilm-plankton samples shared a low percentage (~10%) of amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) indicating distinct communities between free-living and substrate-attached bacteria. Plankton communities did not significantly differ between surface and bottom depths (1 and 8 m), whereas biofilm communities differed between upper (1–4 m) and lower (5–8 m) water columns. Temporal variation in community composition was observed in biofilm, with early periods (June–July) showing significant dissimilarity followed by compositional convergence in late summer onwards (August–October). With the expansion of artificial infrastructure in aquatic systems, there is novel substrate material to observe spatiotemporal patterns of microbial colonisation throughout the pelagic zone. These results demonstrate the complexity of bacterial biofilm communities from plankton in freshwater, providing insight into microbial assembly through temporal succession and across depth.