Journal of Applied Science and Engineering

Published by Tamkang University Press

ESCI jase impact factor scopus logo open access rate of Scopus journal

Disturbance Effects of Animal Carcass Decomposition on Microbial Communities and Virulence Genes in River Water

 2026

 Volume 32

Xiaojing Wang

Zhoukou Vocational and Technical College, Zhoukou 466000, China

Received: November 28, 2025
Accepted: February 10, 2026
Publication Date: May 11, 2026

上傳圖片

Flow chart of water sample preparation with decomposing animal carcasses 

 Copyright The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are cited.

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Under the influence of climate change and human activities, the retention of animal carcasses in river water has become increasingly frequent, posing disturbances to the physicochemical properties and ecosystem of river environments. This study analyzes the impact of carcass decomposition on river ecosystems by measuring changes in water physicochemical parameters, microbial community structure, and the abundance of virulence genes. The results show that decomposition significantly decreases Dissolved Oxygen levels in water, with the lowest concentration reaching 0.08 mg/L. Meanwhile, ammonium nitrogen concentration rises sharply to 14.32 µg/ml, whereas nitrate nitrogen shows minimal change. Among microbial groups, bacteria are the dominant group, with a relative abundance of >60%. However, the abundance of archaea increases significantly in the carcass group (p<0.05). Analysis of virulence genes indicates that genes such as phoP and glnAl reach their highest abundance at 32°C in the carcass group. The structure of virulence gene profiles is strongly correlated with microbial communities, as shown by Procrustes analysis (r=0.810, p<0.05). These findings demonstrate that carcass decomposition drives microbial succession and promotes the enrichment of virulence genes by altering oxygen availability and nitrogen cycling. This provides valuable data for understanding the link between organic pollution and pathogenic risk in river ecosystems.

Keywords: River water; Animal carcass decomposition; Microbial communities; Virulence genes; Disturbance effects

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