Open AccessMicrobial community analysis of deeply buried marine sediments of the New Jersey shallow shelf ( IODP Expedition 313)
Author(s) -
Breuker Anja,
Stadler Susanne,
Schippers Axel
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
fems microbiology ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.377
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1574-6941
pISSN - 0168-6496
DOI - 10.1111/1574-6941.12146
Subject(s) - crenarchaeota , euryarchaeota , archaea , biology , sediment , 16s ribosomal rna , chloroflexi (class) , thaumarchaeota , total organic carbon , bacteria , microbial population biology , ecology , paleontology , proteobacteria
The investigated deeply buried marine sediments of the shallow shelf off N ew J ersey, USA , are characterized by low organic carbon content and total cell counts of < 10 7 cells per mL sediment. The qPCR data for Bacteria and Archaea were in the same orders of magnitude as the total cell counts. Archaea and Bacteria occurred in similar 16S rRNA gene copy numbers in the upper part of the sediments, but Bacteria dominated in the lowermost part of the analyzed sediment cores down to a maximum analyzed depth of c . 50 meters below seafloor (mbsf). The bacterial candidate division JS1 and the classes Anaerolineae and Caldinilineae of the Chloroflexi were almost as highly abundant as the total Bacteria . Similarly high dsrA gene copy numbers were found for sulfate reducers. The abundance of the Fe(III) and Mn(IV) reducers comprising Geobacteraceae in the upper c . 15 mbsf correlated with concentrations of manganese and iron in the pore water. The isolated 16S rRNA gene sequences of Archaea in clone libraries could be allocated to the phyla Thaumarchaeota , Euryarchaeota , and Crenarchaeota with 1%, 14%, and 85%, respectively. The typical deep subsurface sediment‐associated groups MBG‐B, MBG‐D, MCG, and SAGMEG were represented in the sediment community. MCG was the dominant group with a high diversity of the isolated 16S rRNA gene sequences.