2020 ESA Annual Meeting (August 3 - 6)

COS 196 Abstract - Dust microbiomes associated with the drying Salton Sea

Emma L. Aronson, University of California Riverside, Jon K. Botthoff, Center for Conservation Biology, UC Riverside, Mia Maltz, University of California, Riverside, Hannah Freund, Genetics, Genomics, and Bioinformatics, UC Riverside, Riverside, CA, Talyssa Topacio, Microbiology and Plant Pathology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA and David Lo, UCR
Background/Question/Methods:

The Salton Sea is a large, saline, inland water body, which has been artificially maintained through supplemental fresh water and agricultural runoff for decades. The Salton Sea is now in a slow-motion crisis; reductions in fresh water inflow are accelerating the lowering of the sea level, exposing surrounding playa. The combined effect will increase the salinity of the sea, further destabilizing the local ecosystem. In turn, the surrounding lakebed becomes exposed, increasing the local load of wind-driven aerosol particulates. The prevalence of childhood and adult onset asthma in this region has been attributed to the dust and aerosolized pollutants originating from the desiccating sea. Across several years, we have collected passive dust samples at sites surrounding the Salton Sea and in control locations further from the Sea. Samples were collected in sterile water and filtered through sterile filters, which were then used for data extraction and amplicon sequencing of bacterial/archaeal 16S rRNA.

Results/Conclusions:

We found that bacterial/archaeal dust community composition varied between sites and seasons. It appears that the microbial communities of samples from sites surrounding the Salton Sea are more similar to each other than to the control sites. We will set up additional sites in the future to determine whether site proximity to each other or to the sea drives these similarities. Connecting the dust microbiome structure or composition to the frequency in respiratory health issues in the region continues to be an elusive goal, but several dust bacteria have been identified for further study in this area. The Salton Sea creates a unique opportunity to further understand how the environment and its respective microbiome directly influence both ecosystem and human health.