Impact of water quality variations on the microbial metagenome across coastal waters in Shenzhen, south China

Abstract Shenzhen is a coastal city in south China that has developed rapidly over the past four decades, but the microbial diversity and functions of the coastal waters are still not well characterized. Here, we assessed spatial variability of water quality and microbial communities in four areas of Shenzhen coast. The results showed a significant difference on the microbial composition and function between water samples from eastern coast and western coast. The abundance of Rhodobacteraceae bacterium HIMB11, Candidatus Pelagibacter ubique, and alpha proteobacterium HIMB59 were significantly higher in eastern waters (p