Dynamics and Persistence of Dead Sea Microbial Populations as Shown by High-Throughput Sequencing of rRNA

A series of 16S rRNA amplicon libraries were constructed spanning the evolution of a haloarchaeal bloom in the hypersaline Dead Sea. The samples revealed significant population shifts between the various bloom populations. Furthermore, after 15 years, the 2007 inter-bloom population still retained a signature from the latter stages of the 1992 bloom.