Spatial and temporal dynamics of bacterioplankton community composition in a subtropical dammed karst river of southwestern China

River damming influences the hydro‐physicochemical variations in karst water; however, such disruption in bacterioplankton communities has seldom been studied. Here, three sampling sites (city‐river section, reservoir area, and outflow area) of the Ca(2+)–Mg(2+)–HCO (3) (−)–SO (4) (2−) water type in the dammed Liu River were selected to investigate the bacterioplankton community composition as identified by high‐throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing. In the dammed Liu River, thermal regimes have been altered, which has resulted in considerable spatial‐temporal differences in total dissolved solids (TDSs), oxidation‐reduction potential (Eh), dissolved oxygen (DO), and pH and in a different microenvironment for bacterioplankton. Among the dominant bacterioplankton phyla, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Cyanobacteria account for 38.99%–87.24%, 3.75%–36.55%, 4.77%–38.90%, and 0%–14.44% of the total reads (mean relative frequency), respectively. Bacterioplankton communities are dominated by Brevundimonas, Novosphingobium, Zymomonas, the Actinobacteria hgcIclade, the CL500‐29 marine group, Sediminibacterium, Flavobacterium, Pseudarcicella, Cloacibacterium, and Prochlorococcus. Their abundances covary with spatial‐temporal variations in hydro‐physicochemical factors, as also demonstrated by beta diversity analyses. In addition, temperature plays a pivotal role in maintaining bacterioplankton biodiversity and hydro‐physicochemical variations. This result also highlights the concept that ecological niches for aquatic bacteria in dammed karst rivers do not accidentally occur but are the result of a suite of environmental forces. In addition, bacterioplankton can alter the aquatic carbon/nitrogen cycle and contribute to karst river metabolism.