Exploring Bacterial Communities in Aquaponic Systems

Abstract

Aquaponics is a production system based on the dynamic equilibrium between fish, plants, and microorganisms. In order to better understand the role of microorganisms in this tripartite relationship, we studied the bacterial communities hosted in eight aquaponic and aquaculture systems. The bacterial communities were analyzed by 16S rRNA gene deep sequencing. At the phylum level, the bacterial communities from all systems were relatively similar with a predominance of Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes. At the genus level, however, the communities present in the sampled systems were more heterogeneous. The biofilter samples harbored more diverse communities than the corresponding sump samples. The core microbiomes from the coupled and decoupled systems shared more common operational taxonomic units than with the aquaculture systems. Eventually, some of the taxa identified in the systems could have beneficial functions for plant growth and health, but a deeper analysis would be required to identify the precise functions involved in aquaponics.