AUTHOR=Li Xiaopeng , Dai Zehan , Di Pengfei , Feng Junxi , Tao Jun , Chen Duofu , Li Niu , Li Yazi TITLE=Distinct Bottom-Water Bacterial Communities at Methane Seeps With Various Seepage Intensities in Haima, South China Sea JOURNAL=Frontiers in Marine Science VOLUME=8 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.753952 DOI=10.3389/fmars.2021.753952 ISSN=2296-7745 ABSTRACT=
Methane seeps are chemosynthetic ecosystems in the deep-sea environment. Microbial community structures have been extensively studied in the seepage-affected sediments and investigation in the water column above the seeping sites is still lacking. In this study, prokaryotic communities in the bottom water about 50 cm from the seabed at methane seeps with various seepage intensities in Haima, South China Sea were comparatively studied by using 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing. These sites were assigned based on their distinct methane content levels and seafloor landscapes as the non-seepage (NS) site, low-intensity seepage (LIS) site, and high-intensity seepage (HIS) site. The abundances of the dominant phyla Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Actinobacteria differed significantly between NS and the two seepage sites (