Microbiome survey of seasonally anoxic and iron-rich Boreal Shield lakes, 2017-2018

Boreal Shield lakes number in the millions globally, and an estimated 15% of these lakes develop anoxic waters seasonally. These anoxic waters commonly become ferruginous, with high levels of dissolved ferrous iron and low levels of sulfate and sulfide. Such ferruginous ecosystems have been poorly explored in a modern environmental context and are also relevant toward understanding early Earth ecosystems such as the anoxic and ferruginous oceans predicted during the Archaean Eon (approx. 3.8-2.5 billion years ago). Here we surveyed multiple Boreal Shield lakes at the International Institute for Sustainable Development Experimental Lakes Area (IISD-ELA; near Kenora, Ontario, Canada), sampling a core set of eight seasonally anoxic lakes, a permanently oxic reference lake, and samples from other lakes obtained where possible. In this BioProject, metagenome, metatranscriptome, and 16S ribosomal RNA gene amplicon sequencing data are deposited for the 2017-2018 portion of the survey. Data from the 2016 portion of the survey are available under the Joint Genome Institute (JGI) Genome Portal under Proposal ID 502896. Note that this BioProject also contains a small number of 2016 samples (amplicon data only) that were re-sequenced due to failed sequencing in the 2016 run.