Patterns in Benthic Microbial Community Structure Across Environmental Gradients in the Beaufort Sea Shelf and Slope
The paradigm of tight pelagic-benthic coupling in the Arctic suggests that current and future fluctuations in sea ice, primary production, and riverine input resulting from global climate change will have major impacts on benthic ecosystems. To understand how these changes will affect benthic ecosys...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:7876419 2023-05-15T15:00:49+02:00 Patterns in Benthic Microbial Community Structure Across Environmental Gradients in the Beaufort Sea Shelf and Slope Walker, Alexis M. Leigh, Mary Beth Mincks, Sarah L. 2021-01-28 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7876419/ https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.581124 en eng Frontiers Media S.A. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7876419/ http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.581124 Copyright © 2021 Walker, Leigh and Mincks. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. CC-BY Front Microbiol Microbiology Text 2021 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.581124 2021-02-14T01:46:13Z The paradigm of tight pelagic-benthic coupling in the Arctic suggests that current and future fluctuations in sea ice, primary production, and riverine input resulting from global climate change will have major impacts on benthic ecosystems. To understand how these changes will affect benthic ecosystem function, we must characterize diversity, spatial distribution, and community composition for all faunal components. Bacteria and archaea link the biotic and abiotic realms, playing important roles in organic matter (OM) decomposition, biogeochemical cycling, and contaminant degradation, yet sediment microbial communities have rarely been examined in the North American Arctic. Shifts in microbial community structure and composition occur with shifts in OM inputs and contaminant exposure, with implications for shifts in ecological function. Furthermore, the characterization of benthic microbial communities provides a foundation from which to build focused experimental research. We assessed diversity and community structure of benthic prokaryotes in the upper 1 cm of sediments in the southern Beaufort Sea (United States and Canada), and investigated environmental correlates of prokaryotic community structure over a broad spatial scale (spanning 1,229 km) at depths ranging from 17 to 1,200 m. Based on hierarchical clustering, we identified four prokaryotic assemblages from the 85 samples analyzed. Two were largely delineated by the markedly different environmental conditions in shallow shelf vs. upper continental slope sediments. A third assemblage was mainly comprised of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) shared between the shallow shelf and upper slope assemblages. The fourth assemblage corresponded to sediments receiving heavier OM loading, likely resulting in a shallower anoxic layer. These sites may also harbor microbial mats and/or methane seeps. Substructure within these assemblages generally reflected turnover along a longitudinal gradient, which may be related to the quantity and composition of OM deposited ... Text Arctic Beaufort Sea Climate change Sea ice PubMed Central (PMC) Arctic Canada Frontiers in Microbiology 12 |
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Microbiology |
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Microbiology Walker, Alexis M. Leigh, Mary Beth Mincks, Sarah L. Patterns in Benthic Microbial Community Structure Across Environmental Gradients in the Beaufort Sea Shelf and Slope |
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Microbiology |
description |
The paradigm of tight pelagic-benthic coupling in the Arctic suggests that current and future fluctuations in sea ice, primary production, and riverine input resulting from global climate change will have major impacts on benthic ecosystems. To understand how these changes will affect benthic ecosystem function, we must characterize diversity, spatial distribution, and community composition for all faunal components. Bacteria and archaea link the biotic and abiotic realms, playing important roles in organic matter (OM) decomposition, biogeochemical cycling, and contaminant degradation, yet sediment microbial communities have rarely been examined in the North American Arctic. Shifts in microbial community structure and composition occur with shifts in OM inputs and contaminant exposure, with implications for shifts in ecological function. Furthermore, the characterization of benthic microbial communities provides a foundation from which to build focused experimental research. We assessed diversity and community structure of benthic prokaryotes in the upper 1 cm of sediments in the southern Beaufort Sea (United States and Canada), and investigated environmental correlates of prokaryotic community structure over a broad spatial scale (spanning 1,229 km) at depths ranging from 17 to 1,200 m. Based on hierarchical clustering, we identified four prokaryotic assemblages from the 85 samples analyzed. Two were largely delineated by the markedly different environmental conditions in shallow shelf vs. upper continental slope sediments. A third assemblage was mainly comprised of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) shared between the shallow shelf and upper slope assemblages. The fourth assemblage corresponded to sediments receiving heavier OM loading, likely resulting in a shallower anoxic layer. These sites may also harbor microbial mats and/or methane seeps. Substructure within these assemblages generally reflected turnover along a longitudinal gradient, which may be related to the quantity and composition of OM deposited ... |
format |
Text |
author |
Walker, Alexis M. Leigh, Mary Beth Mincks, Sarah L. |
author_facet |
Walker, Alexis M. Leigh, Mary Beth Mincks, Sarah L. |
author_sort |
Walker, Alexis M. |
title |
Patterns in Benthic Microbial Community Structure Across Environmental Gradients in the Beaufort Sea Shelf and Slope |
title_short |
Patterns in Benthic Microbial Community Structure Across Environmental Gradients in the Beaufort Sea Shelf and Slope |
title_full |
Patterns in Benthic Microbial Community Structure Across Environmental Gradients in the Beaufort Sea Shelf and Slope |
title_fullStr |
Patterns in Benthic Microbial Community Structure Across Environmental Gradients in the Beaufort Sea Shelf and Slope |
title_full_unstemmed |
Patterns in Benthic Microbial Community Structure Across Environmental Gradients in the Beaufort Sea Shelf and Slope |
title_sort |
patterns in benthic microbial community structure across environmental gradients in the beaufort sea shelf and slope |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7876419/ https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.581124 |
geographic |
Arctic Canada |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Canada |
genre |
Arctic Beaufort Sea Climate change Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Arctic Beaufort Sea Climate change Sea ice |
op_source |
Front Microbiol |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7876419/ http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.581124 |
op_rights |
Copyright © 2021 Walker, Leigh and Mincks. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.581124 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Microbiology |
container_volume |
12 |
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1766332877671235584 |