Journal
MICROORGANISMS
Volume 11, Issue 7, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms11071664
Keywords
amplicon sequencing; Atlantic Ocean; biogeography; distribution; diversity; unicellular eukaryotes
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Protists play a crucial role in connecting algal and bacterial production to higher trophic levels in marine pelagic ecosystems. However, their functioning and distribution in benthic deep-sea ecosystems are still poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the diversity and distribution of benthic protist communities from different depths around the Azores in the North Atlantic Ocean. Our findings suggest that deep-sea areas surrounding islands may act as isolating barriers for benthic protist species, leading to unique communities at different islands.
Protists are key components of the microbial food web in marine pelagic systems because they link algal and bacterial production to higher trophic levels. However, their functioning and bathymetric distribution in benthic deep-sea ecosystems are still only poorly understood. However, biogeographical patterns of communities can be coupled to the functioning of ecosystems and are therefore important to understand ecological and evolutionary processes. In this study, we investigated the diversity and distribution of benthic protist communities from the sublittoral down to the deep seafloor (50-2000 m) around three islands of the Azores in the North Atlantic Ocean. Using amplicon sequencing of the V9 region (18S rDNA) of 21 samples, we found that protist community compositions from different depths were significantly different. Three assemblages were separated along the following depths: 50 m, 150-500 m and 1000-2000 m, which indicate that deep-sea areas surrounding islands might act as isolating barriers for benthic protist species. A limited gene flow between the communities could favor speciation processes, leading to the unique protist communities found at the different investigated islands.
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