Marine Deep Biosphere Microbial Communities Assemble in Near-Surface Sediments 
in Aarhus Bay

Petro, Caitlin; Zancker, Birthe; Stamawski, Piotr; Jochum, Lara M.; Ferdelman, Timothy G.; Jorgensen, Bo Barker; Roy, Hans; Kjeldsen, Kasper U.; Schramm, Andreas

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2019.00758

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Marine Deep Biosphere Microbial Communities Assemble in Near-Surface Sediments in Aarhus Bay

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Ferdelman, Timothy G.
Department of Biogeochemistry, Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Max Planck Society;

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Citation

Petro, C., Zancker, B., Stamawski, P., Jochum, L. M., Ferdelman, T. G., Jorgensen, B. B., et al. (2019). Marine Deep Biosphere Microbial Communities Assemble in Near-Surface Sediments in Aarhus Bay. Frontiers in Microbiology, 10: 758. doi:10.3389/fmicb.2019.00758.

Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0005-C085-B

Abstract

Analyses of microbial diversity in marine sediments have identified a
core set of taxa unique to the marine deep biosphere. Previous studies
have suggested that these specialized communities are shaped by
processes in the surface seabed, in particular that their assembly is
associated with the transition from the bioturbated upper zone to the
nonbioturbated zone below. To test this hypothesis, we performed a
fine-scale analysis of the distribution and activity of microbial
populations within the upper 50 cm of sediment from Aarhus Bay
(Denmark). Sequencing and qPCR were combined to determine the depth
distributions of bacterial and archaeal taxa (16S rRNA genes) and
sulfate-reducing microorganisms (SRM) (dsrB gene). Mapping of
radionuclides throughout the sediment revealed a region of intense
bioturbation at 0-6 cm depth. The transition from bioturbated sediment
to the subsurface below (7 cm depth) was marked by a shift from dominant
surface populations to common deep biosphere taxa (e.g., Chloroflexi and
Atribacteria). Changes in community composition occurred in parallel to
drops in microbial activity and abundance caused by reduced energy
availability below the mixed sediment surface. These results offer
direct evidence for the hypothesis that deep subsurface microbial
communities present in Aarhus Bay mainly assemble already centimeters
below the sediment surface, below the bioturbation zone.