{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,25]],"date-time":"2026-08-25T05:19:06Z","timestamp":1787635146955,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":51,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"17","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,23]],"date-time":"2026-08-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1787443200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100002855","name":"Third Xinjiang Scientific Expedition and Research Program","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2021xjkk1200"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2021xjkk1200"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100002855","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100012166","name":"National Key R&D Program of China","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["2023YFF1305000"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2023YFF1305000"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100012166","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Animals"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Gut microbiota plays an important role in host metabolism, immunity, and environmental adaptation, yet its response to contrasting wintering habitats in migratory waterbirds remains poorly understood. We compared the gut microbiota of whooper swans (Cygnus cygnus) wintering in a natural riverine habitat (Swan Bay, Hejing County) and an urban wetland habitat (Worker\u2019s Park, Korla City) in Xinjiang, China. A total of 34 fresh fecal samples were analyzed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. We identified 2207 operational taxonomic units (OTUs), of which 734 were shared between habitats, indicating the presence of a conserved core microbiota. The urban wetland group exhibited a significantly higher Simpson index, whereas beta diversity analysis revealed significant differences in community structure between habitats (p &lt; 0.05). Both groups were dominated by Firmicutes, Fusobacteriota, Proteobacteria, Campylobacterota, and Bacteroidota, although their relative abundances differed markedly. LEfSe analysis identified distinct habitat-associated taxa, and PICRUSt2 prediction suggested greater enrichment of metabolism-related pathways in the natural riverine group. Overall, wintering habitat was associated with differences in gut microbial composition and predicted function, providing new insight into the ecological adaptation of migratory waterbirds under contrasting environmental conditions.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ani16172638","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,24]],"date-time":"2026-08-24T09:20:02Z","timestamp":1787563202000},"page":"2638","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Gut Microbiota Composition and Predicted Functional Profiles: Functional Adaptation of Overwintering Whooper Swans (Cygnus cygnus) Across Habitats with Contrasting Anthropogenic Disturbance"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Liangliang","family":"Yang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"State Key Laboratory of Wetland Conservation and Restoration, Ecology and Nature Conservation Institute, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qiyu","family":"Zeng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Xinjiang Laboratory of Special Species Conservation and Regulatory Biology, School of Life-Science, Xinjiang Normal University, Urumqi 830017, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yijie","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Xinjiang Laboratory of Special Species Conservation and Regulatory Biology, School of Life-Science, Xinjiang Normal University, Urumqi 830017, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yongjun","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Xinjiang Laboratory of Special Species Conservation and Regulatory Biology, School of Life-Science, Xinjiang Normal University, Urumqi 830017, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5544-2752","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Qing L.","family":"Cao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"268","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tim.2021.07.003","article-title":"Avian gut microbiomes taking flight","volume":"30","author":"Bodawatta","year":"2022","journal-title":"Trends Microbiol."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e01788","DOI":"10.1111\/jav.01788","article-title":"The avian gut microbiota: Community, physiology and function in wild birds","volume":"49","author":"Grond","year":"2018","journal-title":"J. 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