Exploration for the impacts of halosaline circulation on microbial geography

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26550023
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Environmental dynamic analysis
• Research Institution: Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology
• Principal Investigator: NUNOURA Takuro 国立研究開発法人海洋研究開発機構, 海洋生命理工学研究開発センター, 研究開発センター長代理 (60359164)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 海洋微生物 / 熱塩循環 / 海洋循環 / メタゲノム

Outline of Final Research Achievements

To know the relationship between microbial distribution and thermohaline circulation, we conducted high-resolution microbial sampling and ecological analyses on an observatory transect across north Pacific subarctic zone. Moreover, we tried to construct a method of shotgun metaegnomic library construction from less than 1 ng of DNA to apply the genome level identification of the deep waters along with the observatory transect. As a result, we found anomalous increasing of microbial biomass 1000-2000 m above the seafloor that are not simply explained by the effects of sinking organic matters. We conclude that the thermohaline circulation likely influenced the microbial ecosystem in deep waters. In addition, we successfully constructed shotgun metagenomic libraries from 10 pg of DNA. We are processing molecular data sets to clarify the relationship between microbial distribution and thermohaline circulation.

Free Research Field

微生物生態学