Hot springs are known as highly adverse extreme environments where thermophilic and hyperthermophilic microorganisms can survive. We describe taxonomic diversity of several microbial biofilms collected along water temperature gradient in hot streams in the aquatic system of the Stolbovskie hot springs on Kunashir Island, Kurils, Russia. The taxonomic composition of the studied microbial communities was assessed by the 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding for bacteria and archaea, and by the 18S rRNA gene metabarcoding for protists. Richness and diversity of bacteria in the geothermal microbial communities decreased with the increase of temperature, while for archaea, the tendency was the opposite. Ciliophora was the most represented taxon of protists. The biofilms of various kinds that we found in a very local area of the geothermal system were different from each other by taxonomic composition, and the level of their taxonomic diversity was significantly influenced by water temperature.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.