Impact of ecotourism on the diversity of bacteria, archaea, and fungi in the freshwater stream of the Agua Azul Waterfalls in southeastern Mexico

Ecotourism-linked sites at the Agua Azul Waterfalls stream in Chiapas, Mexico show notable shifts in physicochemical parameters and microbial community composition across bacteria, archaea, and fungi.

• Why it matters: The study addresses how sustained tourism pressure may disturb freshwater microbial diversity and water/sediment quality in a highly vulnerable ecotourist ecosystem.
• What they did: Along gradients of ecotourist activity, the team sampled water and sediment and integrated physicochemical measurements, elemental composition, and microbial community profiling for bacteria, archaea, and fungi.
• The result: Even without significant zone differences, shallow sediments contained anaerobic methanogenic archaea and ammonia-oxidizing archaea, suggesting oxygen availability, methanogenesis (acetoclastic and hydrogenotrophic), and nitrogen metabolism may shape ecosystem functioning.

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.