Microbial community structure and ecology of Marine Group A bacteria in the oxygen minimum zone of the Northeast subarctic Pacific Ocean ...

• Main Author: Wright, Jody Jennifer
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2013
• Subjects: Subarctic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0074090; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0074090

Oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) are intrinsic water column features that arise when the respiratory oxygen (O2) demand during microbial remineralization of organic matter exceeds O2 supply rates in poorly ventilated regions of the ocean. Microbial processes play a key role in mediating biogeochemical cycling of nutrients and radiatively active trace gases in OMZs. Specific roles of individual microbial groups and the ecological interactions among groups that drive OMZ biogeochemistry on a global scale, however, remain poorly constrained. This dissertation focuses on describing microbial community structure in the world’s largest and least studied OMZ, located in the Northeast subarctic Pacific Ocean (NESAP), with a specific emphasis on characterizing the ecology of Marine Group A, an uncultivated candidate phylum of bacteria found to be prevalent in this region. To begin, I performed a survey of microbial community structure in the NESAP at two time points and over a range of depths based on traditional ...