title: Connectivity between surface and deep waters determines prokaryotic diversity in the North Atlantic Deep Water.
abstract: To decipher the influence of depth stratification and surface provincialism on the dark ocean prokaryotic community composition, we sampled the major deep-water masses in the eastern North Atlantic covering three biogeographic provinces. Their diversity was evaluated using ordination and canonical analysis of 454 pyrotag sequences. Variance partitioning suggested that 16% of the variation in the bacterial community composition was based on depth stratification while 9% of the variation was due to geographic location. General linear mixed effect models showed that the community of the subsurface waters was connected to the dark ocean prokaryotic communities in different biogeographic provinces. Cluster analysis indicated that some prokaryotic taxa are specific to distinct regions in bathypelagic water masses. Taken together, our data suggest that the dark ocean prokaryotic community composition of the eastern North Atlantic is primed by the formation and the horizontal transport of water masses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Limnology and Bio-Oceanography, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Alexander H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Frank
authors.affiliation: Department of Limnology and Bio-Oceanography, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Juan A L
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Garcia
authors.affiliation: Department of Limnology and Bio-Oceanography, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.|Department of Biological Oceanography, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Texel, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Gerhard J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Herndl
authors.affiliation: Department of Limnology and Bio-Oceanography, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Reinthaler
mesh_terms: D001267:Atlantic Ocean; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D044822:Biodiversity; D012623:Seawater / Q000382:microbiology*; D014872:Water Movements