Seasonal Succession of Free-Living Bacterial Communities in Coastal Waters of the Western Antarctic Peninsula.

ABSTRACT: The marine ecosystem along the Western Antarctic Peninsula undergoes a dramatic seasonal transition every spring, from almost total darkness to almost continuous sunlight, resulting in a cascade of environmental changes, including phytoplankton blooms that support a highly productive food web. Despite having important implications for the movement of energy and materials through this ecosystem, little is known about how these changes impact bacterial succession in this region. Using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, we measured changes in free-living bacterial community composition and richness during a 9-month period that spanned winter to the end of summer. Chlorophyll a concentrations were relatively low until summer when a major phytoplankton bloom occurred, followed 3 weeks la

SUBMITTER: Luria CM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5093341 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature