Red Sea seagrass (Halophila stipulacea) sediment archaeal and bacterial microbiome

Red Sea seagrass communities are exposed to extreme seawater temperature, leading to a shift from an autotrophic to a heterotrophic state in some seagrass ecosystems. The microbiome can also vary in response to stressors, yet only limited attention was given to stressors affecting the seagrass sediment microbiome.We therefore examined the effect of increasing seawater temperature on the Red Sea Halophila stipulacea sediment microbiome by characterizing the bacterial and archaeal communities of vegetated and bare seagrass sediment cores using 16S rRNA gene sequencing.