Description
The horizontal and vertical changes of bacterial and archaeal community composition and beta- diversity were determined in the eastern North Atlantic’s dark realm. Following a 3000 km long latitudinal transect (49°N-26°N), the North Atlantic Drift province and the Gyre province were sampled from the base of the euphotic layer to the abyssopelagic realm. We used tag encoded FLX amplicon pyrosequencing with primer sets targeting the V1-V3 region to obtain ~1500 sequences per sample of an average read length of ~370 bp. Microbial beta-diversity was assessed using several estimators. Microbial diversity in the mesopelagic water masses was variable, reflecting three different biogeographic provinces of the North Atlantic, namely the drift, the subtropical, and tropical region. In the bathypelagic waters, however, microbial community composition clustered according to water masses and a clear succession of the major microbial groups was found from the north toward the south of the transect. Taken together, our data suggest that in surface waters, the prokaryotic community composition follows the Longhurst biogeographic provinces while in bathypelagic waters, it gradually changes due to the aging of the deep water masses.| Period | 2013 |
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| Event title | 1st EMBO Conference on Aquatic Microbial Ecology: SAME13 |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Stresa, ItalyShow on map |