Sulfur Metabolizing Microbes Dominate Microbial Communities in Andesite-Hosted Shallow-Sea Hydrothermal Systems

Abstract

To determine microbial community composition, community spatial structure and possible key microbial processes in the shallow-sea hydrothermal vent systems off NE Taiwan’s coast, we examined the bacterial and archaeal communities of four samples collected from the water column extending over a redoxocline gradient of a yellow and four from a white hydrothermal vent. Ribosomal tag pyrosequencing based on DNA and RNA showed statistically significant differences between the bacterial and archaeal communities of the different hydrothermal plumes. The bacterial and archaeal communities from the white hydrothermal plume were dominated by sulfur-reducing Nautilia and Thermococcus, whereas the yellow hydrothermal plume and the surface water were dominated by sulfide-oxidizing Thiomicrospira and Euryarchaeota Marine Group II, respectively. Canonical correspondence analyses indicate that methane (CH4) concentration was the only statistically significant variable that explains all community cluster patterns. However, the results of pyrosequencing showed an essential absence of methanogens and methanotrophs at the two vent fields, suggesting that CH4 was less tied to microbial processes in this shallow-sea hydrothermal system. We speculated that mixing between hydrothermal fluids and the sea or meteoric water leads to distinctly different CH4 concentrations and redox niches between the yellow and white vents, consequently influencing the distribution patterns of the free-living Bacteria and Archaea. We concluded that sulfur-reducing and sulfide-oxidizing chemolithoautotrophs accounted for most of the primary biomass synthesis and that microbial sulfur metabolism fueled microbial energy flow and element cycling in the shallow hydrothermal systems off the coast of NE Taiwan.

Changes in Eukaryotic and Bacterial Communities along a 120 m Transect Associated with a Shallow Marine Hydrothermal Vent

“…A recent shallow-water pyrosquencing study in the Okinawa Trough found bacterial communities dominated by sulfur-metabolizing organisms. They found members of the genus Nautilia and Thiomicrospira as the major component of the two hydrothermal vents sampled (Zhang et al, 2012). Neither genus was found in our study.…”

Functional Metagenomic Investigations of Microbial Communities in a Shallow-Sea Hydrothermal System

“…According to 16S rRNA gene analysis, archaea related to methanogens and methanotrophs contribute to a much greater percentage of the total sequences in the deep-sea hydrothermal vent than in the shallow-sea hydrothermal system [13,17]. Deep-sea CH 4 -rich hydrothermal fluids support the growth of large methanogenic and methanotrophic communities, such as those in the Lost City chimneys [5,11].…”

“…pompejana episymbiont community belonged to Epsilonproteobacteria [6]. Previous studies showed that chemolithoautotrophs from Epsilonproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria are predominant primary producers in shallow-sea hydrothermal systems [13,17]. However, the 16S rRNA gene survey offered only limited information on the biogeographic patterns of microbial consortia within an environment.…”

Phylogenetic diversity and functional gene patterns of sulfur-oxidizing subseafloor Epsilonproteobacteria in diffuse hydrothermal vent fluids

“…In particular, Sulfurimonas and Sulfurimonas are frequently detected at high abundances in diverse marine environments where strong gradients of oxygen and sulfide exist, including cold seep sediments (Roalkvam et al, 2011), waters of redoxclines (Grote et al, 2007), coastal marine sediments (Hoor, 1975), and both shallow and deep hydrothermal vents (Huber et al, 2010; Zhang et al, 2012). The primers do not detect Arcobacter , a genus within the Epsilonproteobacteria that also uses the Sox pathway.…”