ANTHROPOGENIC IMPACTS ON THE BACTERIAL PROFILE OF YARIK SINKHOLE IN ANTALYA, TURKEY

Abstract

Yarık Sinkhole is a vertical cave with a length of 1378 m and depth of 533 m. Its location was marked by The AnatolianSpeleology Association in 2011, and expedition entries started in 2014. Yarık Sinkhole became the 12th deepest caveof Turkey. The aim of this study was to determine the bacterial profile of the Yarık Sinkhole using next generation metagenomicsequencing and to investigate whether the bacterial profile of the cave is affected by the activities of peopleliving in this region. This study is important as the samples were collected during the first entrance of the explorationof the cave (up to 300 m). The samples were collected from depths of −80 m, −120 m and −300 m. A total of 33 OTUs(Operational Taxonomic Unit) contained 4 bacteria phyla. Only Firmicutes, Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria phylacomprised a mean abundance of more than 1% in each sample. However, 18 different species have been detected inthe Yarık Sinkhole. The most predominant species are Acinetobacter lwoffii, Methylobacterium tardum, and Propionibacteriumacnes. Although the sampling was done during the first exploration of the Yarık Sinkhole, the fact that themajority of bacteria found in the cave are human-associated, suggest serious impacts from people living near this cavefrom runoff with human and animal waste and trash.