The Evolving Trends of Freshwater Microbial Communities under the Influence of Climate Change and Anthropogenic Pollution

Dear Colleagues,

The vulnerability of freshwater ecosystems (lakes/rivers/reservoirs, etc.) is highlighted by the dual effects of climate change and anthropogenic pollution; however, it is largely difficult to clarify the ecological functions of freshwater microorganisms, whether planktonic, benthic, or sedimental, under various environmental pressures. As a kind of pioneer creature and sensitive environmental recorder in the natural world, microorganisms should be ideal indicators of environmental change but no distinct microbial taxa or characteristic gene clusters have been suggested as a indicator of certain environmental stress. We already know the important role of microorganisms in many processes, such as water pollution, eutrophication, planktonic food webs, ecological restoration, and greenhouse gas emissions, but we have struggled to make use of this knowledge. The objective of this Special Issue is to present the latest research regarding freshwater microorganisms and insights into the microbiology, ecology and genomics of individual microorganisms or microbial communities. This also includes technical procedures and exploratory studies to investigate the biogeochemical cycle of microbes, xenobiotic metabolism, and microbial community succession. For this Special Issue, we invite the submission of papers that address these topics; some of its focal points include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Element cycling;
• Climate change response;
• Aquatic microbiome;
• Microbial food webs; 
• Community succession;
• Spatial–temporal distribution;
• Interspecific relationship;
• Pollutant degradation;
• Eutrophication;
• Algal blooms and algal toxins;
• Metagenome and transcriptome;
• Eco-functions and community structure;
• Resistance gene diffusion;
• Resource strain isolation;
• Community manipulation;
• Degradation/detoxification metabolism

Dr. Yantian Ma
Guest Editor

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• freshwater microorganisms
• community structure and function
• microbial metabolic pathways/potentials
• functional genes and genomes
• water contaminants and restoration
• microbial community ecology and bio-indicators