Extended Ecological Restoration of Bacterial Communities in the Godavari River During the COVID-19 Lockdown Period: a Spatiotemporal Meta-analysis

• Published in: Microbial ecology 2021-08, Vol.82 (2), p.365-376
• Main Authors: Jani, Kunal, Bandal, Jayshree, Shouche, Yogesh, Shafi, Shuja, Azhar, Esam I., Zumla, Alimuddin, Sharma, Avinash
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Air pollution; Allochthonous deposits; Anthropogenic factors; Antibiotic resistance; Antibiotics; Aquatic ecosystems; Bacteria; Bacteria - classification; Bacteria - isolation & purification; Bathing; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Communicable Disease Control - legislation & jurisprudence; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; COVID-19 - epidemiology; COVID-19 - prevention & control; Cyanobacteria; Drug resistance; Drug Resistance, Bacterial; Ecology; Ecosystem; Ecosystems; Environmental effects; ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY; Environmental Monitoring; Environmental restoration; Genes; Geoecology/Natural Processes; Health risks; Hinduism; Human Activities; Human influences; Impact analysis; India - epidemiology; Life Sciences; Mental health; Meta-analysis; Metagenomics; Microbial Ecology; Microbiological strains; Microbiology; Nature Conservation; Pandemics; Perturbation; Populations; Principal Component Analysis; Public health; Restoration; River ecology; River water; Rivers; Rivers - microbiology; Shelter in place; Travel; Water pollution; Water Quality/Water Pollution
• ISSN: 0095-3628; 1432-184X; 1432-184X
• DOI: 10.1007/s00248-021-01781-0

The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has had major impact on human health worldwide. Whilst national and international COVID-19 lockdown and travel restriction measures have had widespread negative impact on economies and mental health, they may have beneficial effect on the environment, reducing air and water pollution. Mass bathing events (MBE) also known as Kumbh Mela are known to cause perturbations of the ecosystem affecting resilient bacterial populations within water of rivers in India. Lockdowns and travel restrictions provide a unique opportunity to evaluate the impact of minimum anthropogenic activity on the river water ecosystem and changes in bacterial populations including antibiotic-resistant strains. We performed a spatiotemporal meta-analysis of bacterial communities of the Godavari River, India. Targeted metagenomics revealed a 0.87-fold increase in the bacterial diversity during the restricted activity of lockdown. A significant increase in the resilient phyla, viz. Proteobacteria (70.6%), Bacteroidetes (22.5%), Verrucomicrobia (1.8%), Actinobacteria (1.2%) and Cyanobacteria (1.1%), was observed. There was minimal incorporation of allochthonous bacterial communities of human origin. Functional profiling using imputed metagenomics showed reduction in infection and drug resistance genes by − 0.71-fold and − 0.64-fold, respectively. These observations may collectively indicate the positive implications of COVID-19 lockdown measures which restrict MBE, allowing restoration of the river ecosystem and minimise the associated public health risk.