Microbial Communities and Metagenomes in Methane-Rich Deep Coastal Sediments

Coastal sediments are rich in embedded recalcitrant organic carbons that are biotransformed into methane. In this study, bacterial 16S rRNA community composition, gas composition (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen) and chemical indicators (total nitrogen, total carbon and total sulfate) were examined in five deep sediment cores (over 130 m in length) obtained from the Hangzhou Bay. A total of 27 draft genomes were retrieved through metagenomic binning methodologies and the study utilized Illumina Miseq high-throughput sequencing technology to sequence the microbial 16S rRNA amplicons of 60 samples from the sediment cores. After quality control and chimera removal, a total of 2,946,414 qualified sequences were obtained.