New Zealand oceanic fronts 16S rRNA gene amplicons Raw sequence reads. marine metagenome

Oceanic fronts are widespread mesoscale features that exist in the boundary between different water masses. Despite the recognized importance of bacterioplankton (including Bacteria and Archaea) on the marine biogeochemical cycles and the ubiquitousness of fronts, the effect of fronts on bacterioplankton community composition remains unknown. Using 16S rRNA gene sequencing coupled with a high spatial resolution analysis of the physical properties of the water masses, we demonstrate the strong role of oceanic fronts in controlling the distribution of bacterioplankton in the ocean: transition between water masses resulted in complete rearrangement of the dominant phyla across sites, and a significant increase in community dissimilarity.

海洋锋面是广泛分布于不同水团边界的中尺度特征。尽管学界已公认浮游细菌（bacterioplankton，包含细菌域Bacteria与古菌域Archaea）在海洋生物地球化学循环中的重要性，且锋面现象普遍存在，但锋面对浮游细菌群落组成的影响仍未明确。本研究通过16S rRNA基因测序结合水团物理属性的高空间分辨率分析，证实了海洋锋面对海洋浮游细菌分布具有显著调控作用：水团间的过渡过程会导致各采样点的优势菌门发生完全重构，并使群落间的相异性显著提升。