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Molecular analyses of microbial abundance and diversity in the water column of anchialine caves in Mallorca, Spain

“…They concluded that all the water bodies they studied showed similar chemical and physical profiles with increases of salinity and temperature and decreases of dissolved oxygen with depth. Some chemical constituents at the different sites in our study did not consistently follow the salt gradient as seen in Carey et al (2001). Drac Negre had the lowest temperature compared to the other sites with a surface temperature 3-4°C below the other sites and 2°C lower at a depth of 2 m. It also appeared to be an outlier in terms of salinity, total dissolved solutes, dissolved oxygen, sulfate, ammonia, and ORP at one or more depths compared to the other sites (Fig.…”

“…Temperature, salinity, total dissolved solids, dissolved oxygen, hardness, ORP, and sulfate generally increase at all locations with increasing depth with a few exceptions. In contrast, two studies of anchialine water bodies in the caves of Mallorca (Carey et al, 2001;Sintes et al, 2004) found dissolved oxygen decreased with depth. Both of these studies also found that temperature and Microbial diversity in caves of Mallorca, Spain microbial community.…”

“…Carey et al (2001) found that in some of the water bodies of the caves of Mallorca, the amount of freshwater changes with the amount of rainfall entering the caves. They…”

“…These data indicate that Drac Negre and Vallgornera have biological gradients that are less developed than Drac Delícies but more developed than Drac Martel. In a study of cavernicolous ciliates from anchialine water bodies in Mallorca, Carey et al (2001) found that the populations were clearly stratified within them. Although ciliates were not specifically measured in our study, the universal eukaryotic primers we used for community structure analyses would include these organisms.…”