Aquatic plant debris changes sediment enzymatic activity and microbial community structure.

The retention of aquatic plant debris in freshwater systems favors a reduction in soluble reactive phosphorus (P) in overlying water through microbe-mediated mechanisms in sediment. For a more complete view of the changes in sediment microbial structure and functioning when receiving plant debris, the enzyme activities and microbial community structure in sediments incubated with or without plant debris were investigated. Significantly higher fluorescein diacetate (FDA) hydrolysis, alkaline phosphatase, polyphenol oxidase, cellulase, β-glucosidase, and dehydrogenase activities were observed with plant debris treatment. High-throughput pyrosequencing showed that the number of total operational taxonomic units (OTUs) of bacteria estimated by using the Chao1 analysis was 2064 (in the control) and 1821 (with the plant debris treatment). The Shannon index, functional organization, and Venn diagrams revealed that the enriched OTUs in plant debris-treated community were less diversified than those in the control sample. The prominent bacterial phyla Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes were more diverse after plant debris addition. At the class level, the relative abundance of Alphaproteobacteria increased by 114% when plant debris was added, whereas the relative abundances of Beta-, Delta-, and Gammaproteobacteria decreased by 42, 78, and 86%, respectively. Azospirillum and Dechloromonas, the dominant phylogenetic groups at the genus level, increased with plant debris addition. Our study showed the importance of the above microbial genera in plant debris-mediated P retention in sediment.