Niche separation in bacterial communities and activities in porewater, loosely attached, and firmly attached fractions in permeable surface sediments.

ABSTRACT: Heterotrophic microbes are central to organic matter degradation and transformation in marine sediments. Currently, most investigations of benthic microbiomes do not differentiate between processes in the porewater and on the grains and, hence, only show a generalized picture of the community. This limits our understanding of the structure and functions of sediment microbiomes. To address this problem, we fractionated sandy surface sediment microbial communities from a coastal site in Isfjorden, Svalbard, into cells associated with the porewater, loosely attached to grains, and firmly attached to grains; we found dissimilar bacterial communities and metabolic activities in these fractions. Most (84%-89%) of the cells were firmly attached, and this fraction comprised more anaerobes, such as

SUBMITTER: Moncada C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11368169 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature