title: Distinct patterns of marine bacterial communities in the South and North Pacific Oceans.
abstract: The study of oceanic microbial communities is crucial for our understanding of the role of microbes in terms of biomass, diversity and ecosystem function. In this study, 16S rRNA gene tag pyrosequencing was used to investigate change in bacterial community structure between summer and winter water masses from Gosung Bay in the South Sea of Korea and Chuuk in Micronesia, located in the North and South Pacific Oceans, respectively. Summer and winter sampling from each water mass revealed highly diverse bacterial communities, containing ~900 Operational Taxonomic Units (OTUs). The microbial distribution and highly heterogeneous composition observed at both sampling sites were different from those of most macroorganisms. The bacterial communities in the seawater at both sites were most abundant in Proteobacteria during the summer in Gosung and in Bacterioidetes during the winter. The proportion of Cyanobacteria was higher in summer than in winter in Chuuk and similar in Gosung. Additionally, the microbial community during summer in Gosung was significantly different from other communities observed based on the unweighted UniFrac distance. These data suggest that in both oceanic areas sampled, the bacterial communities had distinct distribution patterns with spatially- and temporally-heterogeneous distributions.
authors.affiliation: South Sea Environment Research Department, Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, Geoje, 656-830, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Sung-Suk
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Suh
authors.forename: Mirye
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Jinik
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: Sukchan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Youngjae
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.forename: Taek-Kyun
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D058448:Biota; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D010140:Pacific Ocean; D010802:Phylogeny; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D012621:Seasons; D012623:Seawater / Q000382:microbiology*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S