Community diversity of prokaryotes inhabiting Soap Lake, Washington (USA)

A phylogenomic 16S rRNA analysis was performed on both the oxic mixolimnion (3 m) water and anoxic monimolimnion (23 m) water of meromictic and haloalkaline Soap Lake in central Washington, USA. A key goal was to obtain a comparative picture of the microbial community biodiversity of both shallow and deep waters in this extreme aquatic ecosystem that features a pH of 9.8, a salinity gradient ranging from 1.5% NaCl at the surface to ~14% NaCl at the bottom, and an anoxic monimolimnion containing astoundingly high concentrations (~150 mM) of dissolved sulfide.