Microbial communities of urban stormwater sediments: the phylogenetic structure of bacterial communities varies with porosity

This study focuses on the distribution of bacterial and fungal communities within the microstructure of a multi-contaminated sedimentary layer resulting from urban stormwater infiltration. Fractionation was performed on the basis of differential porosity and aggregate grain size, resulting in five fractions: leachable fitting macroporosity,  1000 μm. Amounts of both bacterial and fungal biomasses are greater in the < 10 μm and leachable fractions. The aggregates contain numerous bacteria but very low amounts of fungal biomass. Single-strand conformational polymorphism molecular profiles highlighted the differences between bacterial and fungal communities of the leachable fraction and those of the aggregates. Random Sanger sequencing of ssu clones revealed that these differences were mainly because of the presence of Epsilonproteobacteria and Firmicutes in the leachable fractions, while the aggregates contained more Cyanobacteria. The Cyanobacteria phylotypes in the aggregates were dominated by the sequences related to Microcoleus vaginatus while the leachable fractions presented the sequences of chloroplastic origin. Therefore, more than 50% of the phylotypes observed were related to Proteobacteria while 40% were related to Cyanobacteria and Bacteroidetes. Preferential distribution of clades in almost all the phyla or classes detected was observed. This study provides insight into the identities of dominant members of the bacterial communities of urban sediments. Microcoleus vaginatus appeared to predominate in pioneer soils.