## 1 Introduction  
The Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations (UN) encourage the international community to safeguard ecosystems by 2030 due to their close relation with the conservation of biodiversity and water resources, and human health [1]. In agreement with these goals, the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the European Green Deal communication require European Union member states to reach good environmental status of their aquatic ecosystems. One of the major risks for water bodies and ecosystem sustainability involve emerging pollutants [2; 3]. Facing this challenge calls for evaluating the distribution and fate of pollutants as well as the bacterial community structure (composition). In the case of wetlands, the attenuation capacity of pollutants is linked to the bacterial communities at the sediment-water interface [4; 5; 6; 7]. Therefore, the relative abundance and distribution of bacteria can be an indicator for the attenuation potential of pollutantslinked to biogeochemical turnover. Moreover, bacterial distribution can be also affected by land use in the catchment areas of water bodies. In this study, we evaluated the distribution of bacterial communities and endocrine disruptors by analysing lacustrine sediments and water samples. Petrola wetland (SE Spain, Figure 1) is a hypersaline playa lake type encompassing a saline complex formed by 12 shallow lakes covering an area of approximately 25 km\({}^{2}\). This is one of the most important saline wetlands in the region of Castilla-La Mancha and is an important hotspot of biodiversity. It has therefore been given protection status in the form of several regulations: \"Sites of Community Importance\" EU 1997, \"Natural Reserve\" Junta de Castilla-La Mancha Regional Government (DOCM 26/2003), and Special Protection Area (Code: ES0000153 Steppe area of eastern Albacete). In addition to the botanical, faunaal and hydrological characteristics of the area, the lake serves as a refuge for migratory birds; it sustains an important population of flamingos and hosts remarkable endangered species such as the white-headed duck (_Oxyura leuccephala_). The lake exhibits a marked water level fluctuation due to the semiarid climate of the region, which leads to an imbalance between water inputs and outputs. The hydroperiod is characterized by a temporarily flooded period during the wet season. Irrigation return flows and direct spills of urban wastewaters to the lake have changed the hydroperiod, and during relatively wet years, the lake no longer becomes completely dry. The area has been subjected to previous geochemical studies on the potential nitrate attenuation capacity [8; 9]. The anthropogenic impact involves organic pollutants such as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). EDCs--defined as exogenous substances or mixtures that possess properties that might lead to endocrine disruption in living organisms or their progeny or (sub) populations [10]--can affect the ecological status of natural water bodies. As no previous studies have been conducted on this issue in the study area, this represents a first characterization of the endocrine disruptors. EDC were identified based on an available EDC database. The availability of organic carbon, coupled to the supply of electron acceptor species (such as NO\({}_{3}\)\({}^{-}\), SO\({}_{4}\)\({}^{2-}\)), maintain the potential of sediment to support degradation reactions of chemicals. The biodegradation potential is high at the sediment-water interface, where microorganisms can use available organic and inorganic substances as a source of energy for metabolic functions or biomass production, oxide-reductases or hydrolases enzymes [11; 12; 13]. The fate of many contaminants in water bodies is governed by biogeochemical cycles. These are driven by microbial processes and thus depend on bacterial community composition. Little is known about the distribution of endocrine disruptors and its relationship with bacterial community composition.