Archaeal, bacterial, and eukaryal microbial community structure of sediment and seawater in a coastal region near Puerto Nuevo, Baja California
AbstractMicrobial communities control numerous biogeochemical processes critical for ecosystem function and health, particularly in coastal ecosystems. However, comparatively little is known about microbial community structure in coastal regions, such that basic patterns of microbial biodiversity, such as species richness and community composition, are generally understudied. To better understand the global patterns of microbial biodiversity in coastal ecosystems, we characterized sediment and seawater microbial communities for three sites near Puerto Nuevo (Baja California, Mexico) using 16S and 18S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing methods. We found that sediment bacteria, archaea, and eukaryote microbial communities contained approximately 5 × 10^2 fold greater operational taxonomic units (OTUs) than their seawater-based counterparts (p < 0.001). Further, distinct bacterial, archaeal and eukaryal phyla were found in sediment and seawater samples. The phyla Acidobacteria, Chlorobi, and Chloroflexi were found to be abundant and unique to the sediment and Cyanobacteria, Spirochaetae, and Woesearchaeota to the seawater environment. Apicomplexa and Arthropoda were abundant eukaryal phyla found uniquely in the sediment whereas the Cryptomonadales and Protalveolata were detected only in the seawater. Furthermore, bacterial and archaeal communities were statistically different by site (p < 0.05) in both seawater and sediment samples for the Major Outlet site, the site closest to a residential area. In contrast, eukaryal microbial communities were only different among sites in the seawater samples. Overall, these results suggest that our understanding of coastal microbial biodiversity patterns require spatially robust sampling. This study contributes to a growing body of foundational microbial biodiversity and ecology knowledge, providing context to the global change that is induced by urban development.