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Water Mass Controlled Vertical Stratification of Bacterial and Archaeal Communities in the Western Arctic Ocean During Summer Sea-Ice Melting

  • Microbiology of Aquatic Systems
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Abstract

The environmental variations and their interactions with the biosphere are vital in the Arctic Ocean during the summer sea-ice melting period in the current scenario of climate change. Hence, we analysed the vertical distribution of bacterial and archaeal communities in the western Arctic Ocean from sea surface melt-ponds to deep water up to a 3040 m depth. The distribution of microbial communities showed a clear stratification with significant differences among different water depths, and the water masses in the Arctic Ocean – surface mixed layer, Atlantic water mass and deep Arctic water – appeared as a major factor explaining their distribution in the water column. A total of 34 bacterial phyla were detected in the seawater and 10 bacterial phyla in melt-ponds. Proteobacteria was the dominant phyla in the seawater irrespective of depth, whereas Bacteroidota was the dominant phyla in the melt-ponds. A fast expectation-maximization microbial source tracking analysis revealed that only limited dispersion of the bacterial community was possible across the stratified water column. The surface water mass contributed 21% of the microbial community to the deep chlorophyll maximum (DCM), while the DCM waters contributed only 3% of the microbial communities to the deeper water masses. Atlantic water mass contributed 37% to the microbial community of the deep Arctic water. Oligotrophic heterotrophic bacteria were dominant in the melt-ponds and surface waters, whereas chemoautotrophic and mixotrophic bacterial and archaeal communities were abundant in deeper waters. Chlorophyll and ammonium were the major environmental factors that determined the surface microbial communities, whereas inorganic nutrient concentrations controlled the deep-water communities.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available in the NCBI repository, Bioproject number PRJNA770954). Submission information can be found at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sra

Code Availability

Codes used in the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to express their sincere gratitude to the Director, NCPOR, Ministry of Earth Sciences, for providing the necessary facilities for carrying out this research. This research was a part of the project titled ‘Korea-Arctic Ocean Warming and Response of Ecosystem (K-AWARE, KOPRI, 1525011760)’, funded by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, Korea. The authors also thank Asian Forum for Polar Sciences (AFOPS) for facilitating the Arctic expedition 2019. The authors thank the captain and crew of the IBRV ARAON who were most helpful in all shipboard operations. This is NCPOR contribution number J-84/ 2021-22.

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India and Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, Republic of Korea. Grant numbers [K-AWARE, KOPRI, 1525011760]. Authors Puthiya Veettil Vipindas, Siddarthan Venkatachalam, Thajudeen Jabir and Kottekkatu Padinchati Krishnan have received research support from NCPOR, India. Authors Eun ** Yang, Kyoung-Ho Cho, **young Jung and Youngju Lee have received research support from KOPRI, Korea.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Arctic Ecology and Biogeochemistry Division, National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Vasco-da-Gama, Goa, 403 804, India

    Puthiya Veettil Vipindas, Siddarthan Venkatachalam, Thajudeen Jabir & Kottekkatu Padinchati Krishnan

  2. Division of Polar Ocean Sciences, Korea Polar Research Institute, 26 Songdo-dong, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, 21990, Republic of Korea

    Eun ** Yang, Kyoung-Ho Cho, **young Jung & Youngju Lee

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  1. Puthiya Veettil Vipindas
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Puthiya Veettil Vipindas, Siddarthan Venkatachalam, Thajudeen Jabir, Eun ** Yang, Kyoung-Ho Cho, **young Jung and Youngju Lee. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Puthiya Veettil Vipindas and edited by Kottekkatu Padinchati Krishnan. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Kottekkatu Padinchati Krishnan.

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Vipindas, P.V., Venkatachalam, S., Jabir, T. et al. Water Mass Controlled Vertical Stratification of Bacterial and Archaeal Communities in the Western Arctic Ocean During Summer Sea-Ice Melting. Microb Ecol 85, 1150–1163 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-022-01992-z

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