Comparative 16S rRNA amplicon profiling of surface microbial communities on historic buildings across southern and northern China
Hanyayu Niu
International Department, the Affiliated High School of South China Normal University
DOI: https://doi.org/10.59429/pest.v8i2.14482
Keywords: historic buildings; microbial communities; cultural heritage conservation; 16S rRNA sequencing; proteobacteria; beta diversity
Abstract
Bacterial biofilms are often discussed as a secondary problem in the conservation of old buildings, but on damp or dust-laden surfaces they can become an active part of material decay. Here, 72 surface samples from historic buildings in Foshan, Guangzhou, and Shanxi/Taiyuan were compared to examine how much of the bacterial pattern is shared across regions and how much is shaped by individual buildings and substrates. The sample set covered a humid subtropical setting in southern China and a temperate monsoon setting in northern China, and included wood, tile, brick, wall, statue, and cave-wall surfaces. Community profiles were generated from 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and interpreted with taxonomic summaries, rarefaction analysis, PCA, Bray-Curtis PCoA, PERMANOVA, and FAPROTAX-based functional prediction. Four phyla, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteriota, Firmicutes, and Bacteroidota, together made up more than 80% of the reads in each region, suggesting that these surfaces carry a broad but recognizable bacterial core. At genus or species level the picture was less uniform. Pseudomonas, Sphingomonas, Acinetobacter, and Bacillus appeared repeatedly, yet their abundance changed with building context and surface material. Ordination results pointed in the same direction: The separation among buildings and substrates was clearer than the separation among broad geographic regions, and PERMANOVA confirmed significant compositional differences (p < 0.001). Predicted functions were dominated by chemoheterotrophy and aerobic chemoheterotrophy. Nitrification-related categories were somewhat more prominent in the Shanxi/Taiyuan group, a pattern that may be linked to nitrogen deposition, bird-derived inputs, and semi-enclosed spaces. The results argue for conservation assessment at a finer scale than climate zone alone.
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