Spatial Pattern of Bacterial Community Diversity Formed in Different Groundwater Field Corresponding to Electron Donors and Acceptors Distributions at a Petroleum-Contaminated Site

The benefits of an electron-transfer mechanism for petroleum biodegrading have been widely acknowledged, but few have studied the spatial pattern of microbial community diversity in groundwater fields, and few discuss the bacterial community’s diversity in relation to electron donors-acceptors distribution, which is largely determined by groundwater flow. Eleven samples in different groundwater fields are collected at a petroleum-contaminated site, and the microbial communities are investigated using 16S rRNA gene sequences with multivariate statistics. These are mainly linked to the chemical composition analysis of electron donor indexes COD, BTEX and electron acceptor indexes DO, NO3−, Fe2+, Mn2+, and SO42−, HCO3−. The spatial pattern of the bacterial community’s diversity is characterized and the effect of the electron redox reaction on bacterial community formation in different groundwater field zones is elucidated. It is found that a considerable percentage (>65%) of the bacterial communities related to petroleum degrading suggest that petroleum biodegrading is occurring in groundwater. The communities are subject to the redox reaction in different groundwater field zones: The side plume zone and the upstream of the source zone are under aerobic redox or denitrification redox, and the corresponding bacteria are Rhodoferax, Novosphingobium, Hydrogenophaga, and Comamonas; the source zone and downstream of the source zone are under Fe3+, Mn4+, and SO42− reduction redox, and the corresponding bacteria are Rhodoferax, Treponema, Desulfosporosinus, Hydrogenophaga, and Acidovorax. These results imply that groundwater flow plays a definitive role in the bacterial community’s diversity spatial pattern formation by influencing the distribution of electron donor and acceptor