Prokaryote composition in sediment and water fractions

Marine microorganisms, live in diverse ecological communities where they interact with each other to guarantee ecosystem functions. The application of metabarcoding tool has improved the study of the taxonomic diversity of marine organisms as well as the construction of network cooccurrence patterns to assess possible associations of organisms. Ria de Vigo is a highly productive system that sustains important areas of shellfish production. The movement of organisms between the benthic and pelagic realms makes shallow seas highly diverse ecosystems with increasing richness towards the coast. Furthermore, previous studies suggest the importance of considering sediment as an important fraction to study, due to their high diversity of organisms. Despite the importance of considering shallow marine zones for the biodiversity monitoring, currently there is a scarce number of studies focused in the use of DNA metabarcoding in shallow marine zones. Therefore, the major novelty of this study is the first detailed description of the eukaryote and prokaryote cooccurrence network in a shallow marine area near the intertidal zone in Ria de Vigo, including both sediment and water column.