Cited by 644Microbial Community Ecology and PhysiologyMarine Biology and Ecology ResearchMethane Hydrates and Related Phenomena

Global patterns of bacterial beta-diversity in seafloor and seawater ecosystems

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Zinger, Lucie, Amaral-Zettler, Linda A., Fuhrman, Jed A., Horner-Devine, M. Claire, Huse, Susan M., Welch, David B. Mark, Martiny, Jennifer B. H., Sogin, Mitchell +2 more·2011·PLoS ONE

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Marine microbial communities have been essential contributors to global biomass, nutrient cycling, and biodiversity since the early history of Earth, but so far their community distribution patterns remain unknown in most marine ecosystems. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The synthesis of 9.6 million bacterial V6-rRNA amplicons for 509 samples that span the global ocean's surface to the deep-sea floor shows that pelagic and benthic communities greatly differ, at all taxonomic levels, and share <10% bacterial types defined at 3% sequence similarity level. Surface and deep water, coastal and open ocean, and anoxic and oxic ecosystems host distinct communities that reflect productivity, land influences and other environmental constraints such as oxygen availability. The high variability of bacterial community composition specific to vent and coastal ecosystems reflects the heterogeneity and dynamic nature of these habitats. Both pelagic and benthic bacterial community distributions correlate with surface water productivity, reflecting the coupling between both realms by particle export. Also, differences in physical mixing may play a fundamental role in the distribution patterns of marine bacteria, as benthic communities showed a higher dissimilarity with increasing distance than pelagic communities. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This first synthesis of global bacterial distribution across different ecosystems of the World's oceans shows remarkable horizontal and vertical large-scale patterns in bacterial communities. This opens interesting perspectives for the definition of biogeographical biomes for bacteria of ocean waters and the seabed.

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  1. [67]Legendre P Legendre L 1998 Numerical Ecology, 2nd English edition. Amsterdam Elsevier science 853

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Authors
Zinger, L., Amaral-Zettler, L. A., Fuhrman, J. A., Horner-Devine, M. C., Huse, S. M., Welch, D. B. M., Martiny, J. B. H., Sogin, M., Boetius, A., & Ramette, A.
Affiliations
  • Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology (DE)
  • University of Southern California (US)
  • Marine Biological Laboratory (US)
  • University of California, Irvine (US)
  • Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung (DE)
Corresponding author
  • Zinger, Lucie
  • Fuhrman, Jed A.
  • Huse, Susan M.
  • Welch, David B. Mark
  • Martiny, Jennifer B. H.
  • Sogin, Mitchell
  • Ramette, Alban
Venue
PLoS ONE
Published
2011-09-08
Volume
6
Issue
9
Pages
e24570
ISSN
1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2169157436
Cited by
643
References
79
Citations by year
2026: 29 · 2025: 28 · 2024: 23 · 2023: 34 · 2022: 55 · 2021: 43 · 2020: 48 · 2019: 47 · 2018: 72 · 2017: 57 · 2016: 43 · 2015: 54 · 2014: 44 · 2013: 39 · 2012: 24
FWCI
30.72
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Bern Open Repository and Information System (University of Bern) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar-und Meeresforschung (Alfred-Wegener-Institut) (submittedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Max Planck Digital Library (submittedVersion)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Open Access CRIS of the University of Bern
Funders
  • Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
  • Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
  • Leibniz-Gemeinschaft
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Marine Biology and Ecology Research
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Methane Hydrates and Related Phenomena
Keywords
marine bacteria, benthic-pelagic coupling, seafloor ecosystems, deep-sea floor, hydrothermal vents, coastal ecosystems, surface water productivity, particle export, ocean mixing, bacterial biogeography
MeSH terms
Bacteria, Classification, Oceans and Seas, Phylogeny, Seawater, Water Microbiology, Cluster Analysis, Databases, Factual, Ecosystem, Biomass, Computational Biology, Biodiversity

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