Bacterial community composition in rainwater associated with synoptic weather in an area downwind of the Asian continent

Abstract

Bacteria are abundant in atmospheric waters and can be disseminated by precipitation to the surface of the Earth, potentially influencing ecosystems, public health and climate. However, data on bacterial communities in rainwater, especially on the association with weather, are very limited. In this study, rainwater was collected at the coastal city Kumamoto, southwestern Japan, in 2015. The bacterial communities in fourteen samples were identified using 16S rRNA sequencing and compared according to the rain types at the synoptic scale, i.e., cyclones, Meiyu and non-Meiyu stationary fronts, and typhoons. Diverse bacterial communities were present in all four types of rainwater and were dominated by the phyla Proteobacteria (37%), Bacteroidetes (16%), Cyanobacteria (14%), Actinobacteria (9%), Acidobacteria (8%) and Firmicutes (5%). Approximately half of the phyla (16 out of 33) were common among the rain types. The operational taxonomic units (OTUs) common among the four types of rainwater represented the majority (averagely 74%) of the sequences, indicating the predominance of common bacterial OTUs regardless of rain type. On the other hand, the synoptic weather systems and the origins of air masses associated with the rain likely resulted in distinct bacterial communities. High fractions of bacterial soil indicator taxa signified the large contribution of bacteria from soils. Genera containing ice nucleation-active bacteria were identified in all samples except one typhoon rain sample. Marine bacterial taxa, e.g., Pseudoalteromonas, Synechococcus and Marinobacter, were detected in several samples, indicating the dispersal of marine bacteria via clouds and rainwater. Fecal indicator bacteria were also detected in all samples. Thus, the bacteria in the four types of rainwater were characterized by largely overlapping communities with some differences in community composition, indicating that rain is an efficient pathway for the dissemination of bacterial communities in nature and links continental, marine and island ecosystems.

Keywords: 16S rRNA sequencing; Bacteria; Community composition; Rainwater; Synoptic weather.