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Pelagic Oxygen Minimum Zone Microbial Communities

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The Prokaryotes

Abstract

Marine oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) are oxygen-starved regions of the ocean harboring diverse microbial communities that drive biogeochemical processes of global significance, particularly those associated with the nitrogen cycle, with resulting impacts on marine nutrient cycles and the climate system. OMZs appear to be expanding and intensifying due to global climate change. Actual dissolved oxygen concentrations vary among extant OMZs, with some of them being totally anoxic and dominated by anaerobic metabolic processes, others presenting no geochemical signs of anaerobic metabolisms. Despite these overt phenotypic differences, culture-independent molecular studies have identified recurring microbial community composition patterns within OMZs consistent with redox-driven niche partitioning. While the majority of molecular studies have been based on individual marker genes, more recent studies have incorporated community genomic and transcriptomic data sets. Here, we highlight dominant trends emerging from these studies with emphasis on key taxonomic groups implicated in nitrogen, sulfur, and carbon transformations within OMZs.

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Acknowledgments

This chapter was prepared while the lead author (O.Ulloa) was on sabbatical at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of British Columbia, supported by the Life Sciences Institute Visiting Scholar Award, the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies International Visiting Research Scholar Award, and a gift from the Agouron Institute.

This work was performed under the auspices of the Agouron Institute, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the FONDAP Program of the Chilean National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICYT), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. J. J. Wright was supported by NSERC. L. Belmar was supported by CONICYT.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Oceanografía, Universidad de Concepción, Casilla 160-C, Concepción, 4070386, Chile

    Prof. Osvaldo Ulloa

  2. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of British Columbia, Life Sciences Institute, 2552-2350 Health Sciences Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1ZR, Canada

    Jody J. Wright & Steven J. Hallam

  3. Departamento de Oceanografía and Programa de Postgrados en Oceanografía, Universidad de Concepción, Casilla 160-C, Concepción, 4070386, Chile

    Lucy Belmar

  4. Graduate Program in Bioinformatics, University of British Columbia, Life Sciences Institute, 2552-2350 Health Sciences Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1ZR, Canada

    Steven J. Hallam

Authors
  1. Prof. Osvaldo Ulloa
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  2. Jody J. Wright
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  3. Lucy Belmar
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  4. Steven J. Hallam
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Osvaldo Ulloa .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Eugene Rosenberg

  2. Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Edward F. DeLong

  3. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Stephen Lory

  4. Leibniz Institute DSMZ-German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, Braunschweig, Germany

    Erko Stackebrandt

  5. Laboratory of Microbiology, Institute of Biology, Center for Health Sciences, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Ilha do Fundão, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Fabiano Thompson

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Ulloa, O., Wright, J.J., Belmar, L., Hallam, S.J. (2013). Pelagic Oxygen Minimum Zone Microbial Communities. In: Rosenberg, E., DeLong, E.F., Lory, S., Stackebrandt, E., Thompson, F. (eds) The Prokaryotes. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30123-0_45

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