Investigating sedimentary prokaryotic community among different benthic substrata, as well as between sediment and holothurian feces in each benthic type.

Coral reef ecosystem has diverse benthic substrates, such as sandy bottom, seagrass meadow, and rocky shore with living scleractinian corals. There is many of research known about sea water and organisms' body surface (e.g., coral, sponge) microbes, however, sedimentary microbes haven't been studied well. Also, although holothurians have been estimated to have a crucial role in sedimentary material recycling and bioturbation through their feeding behavior, their fecal microbes have rarely been investigated specifically in tropical and subtropical regions. Here we have obtained a comprehensive dataset of sedimentary, and fecal prokaryotic communities from around Okinawa Island, Japan including multiple substrate types, and conducted analysis to reveal which prokaryotes were enriched in each sample.