Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER. aquatic metagenome

The Georgia Coastal Ecosystems Long Term Ecological Research site (GCE) is located on the central Georgia coast of the southeastern United States. The study area encompasses the estuaries, sounds and marsh complexes surrounding Sapelo Island. The area is bounded on the east by the Atlantic Ocean (South Atlantic Bight). The ecology of the GCE site is typical of the Carolinian biogeographic province, which is characterized by vast expanses of tidal salt marshes protected by a buffer of barrier islands. Patterns and processes in this complex landscape vary spatially within and between sites, and temporally on multiple scales (tidal, diurnal, seasonal, and inter-annual). The central paradigm of GCE-II is that the mixture of fresh and salt-water flow primarily mediates variability in estuarine ecosystem processes across the coastal landscape. An important question (Q2) in the GCE-LTER research plan is "How do the spatial and temporal patterns of biogeochemical processes, primary production, community dynamics, decomposition, and disturbance vary across the estuarine landscape, and how do they relate to environmental gradients?" To understand these interactions, it is necessary to describe temporal and spatial patterns of biotic and abiotic variables. Data are regularly collected on physical, chemical and biological oceanographic conditions; groundwater hydrology and biogeochemistry; and intertidal marsh soil, plant, microbial and animal dynamics. The MIRADA project is a fortunate windfall to the GCE-LTER as it has provided a first look into the aquatic microbial diversity of these estuaries, and compliments data for GCE Q2. Four sites, representing the hydrographical variability, were sampled at high and low tide of one cycle. Sampling was synchronized with the monthly GCE-LTER monitoring cruise.