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Bacterial and archaeal community structures in the Arctic deep-sea sediment

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Abstract

Microbial community structures in the Arctic deep-sea sedimentary ecosystem are determined by organic matter input, energy availability, and other environmental factors. However, global warming and earlier ice-cover melting are affecting the microbial diversity. To characterize the Arctic deep-sea sediment microbial diversity and its relationship with environmental factors, we applied Roche 454 sequencing of 16S rDNA amplicons from Arctic deep-sea sediment sample. Both bacterial and archaeal communities’ richness, compositions and structures as well as taxonomic and phylogenetic affiliations of identified clades were characterized. Phylotypes relating to sulfur reduction and chemoorganotrophic lifestyle are major groups in the bacterial groups; while the archaeal community is dominated by phylotypes most closely related to the ammonia-oxidizing Thaumarchaeota (96.66%) and methanogenic Euryarchaeota (3.21%). This study describes the microbial diversity in the Arctic deep marine sediment (>3 500 m) near the North Pole and would lay foundation for future functional analysis on microbial metabolic processes and pathways predictions in similar environments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Yan Li, Chaolun Li, Yi Dong, Wenyan Zhang, Wuchang Zhang & Tian Xiao

  2. State Field Research Station of Jiaozhou Bay Marine Ecology, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Qun Liu

  3. Center for Transport Phenomena, Energy Research Institute, Shandong Academy of Sciences, Jinan, 250014, China

    Yan Li

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  1. Yan Li
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  2. Qun Liu
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  3. Chaolun Li
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  4. Yi Dong
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  5. Wenyan Zhang
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  6. Wuchang Zhang
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  7. Tian Xiao
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Correspondence to Tian Xiao.

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Foundation item: The National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract No. 41121064; the NSFC-Shandong Joint Fund for Marine Science Research Centers under contract No. U1406403; the Science Foundation for Post Doctorate Research from the Chinese Academy of Sciences under contract No. 2012M511072.

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Li, Y., Liu, Q., Li, C. et al. Bacterial and archaeal community structures in the Arctic deep-sea sediment. Acta Oceanol. Sin. 34, 93–113 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-015-0624-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-015-0624-9

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