Abstract
Glacial lake ecosystems are experiencing rapid changes due to accelerated glacier retreat. As glaciers recede, their influence on downstream lakes diminishes, potentially affecting the biodiversity of glacial lake microbial communities. However, there remains a knowledge gap regarding how bacterial biodiversity patterns in glacial lakes are altered by diminishing glacial influence. Here, we investigated shifts in bacterial communities from paired water and sediment samples collected from seven glacial lakes on the Tibetan Plateau, using a space-for-time substitution approach to understand the consequences of glacier retreat. Our findings reveal that bacterial diversity in lake water increases significantly with higher glacial influence index (GI), whereas sediment bacterial diversity exhibits a negative correlation with GI. Both water and sediment bacterial communities display significant structural shifts along the GI gradient. Notably, reduced glacial influence decreases the complexity of bacterial co-occurrence networks in lake water but enhances network complexity in sediments. This divergence in diversity and co-occurrence patterns highlights that water and sediment bacterial communities respond differently to changes in glacial influence over these lake ecosystems. This study provides insights into how diminishing glacial influence impacts the diversity and community structure of bacterial communities in glacial lake water and sediments, revealing contrasting patterns between the two environments. The findings emphasize the need for comprehensive monitoring to understand the implications of glacier retreat on these fragile ecosystems.