Characterization of nitrifying, denitrifying, and overall bacterial communities in permeable marine sediments of the northeastern Gulf of Mexico.

ABSTRACT: Sandy or permeable sediment deposits cover the majority of the shallow ocean seafloor, and yet the associated bacterial communities remain poorly described. The objective of this study was to expand the characterization of bacterial community diversity in permeable sediment impacted by advective pore water exchange and to assess effects of spatial, temporal, hydrodynamic, and geochemical gradients. Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP) was used to analyze nearly 100 sediment samples collected from two northeastern Gulf of Mexico subtidal sites that primarily differed in their hydrodynamic conditions. Communities were described across multiple taxonomic levels using universal bacterial small subunit (SSU) rRNA targets (RNA- and DNA-based) and functional markers for nitri

SUBMITTER: Mills HJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2493161 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature