Baseline assessment of bacterial diversity in Manganese Nodule-Rich Abyssal Plains (Eastern Equatorial Pacific)

Bacterial diversity has been investigated in sediment, bottom water and polymathic nodule samples collected in 2019 from the German contract area PA1 of the Germany's geoscientific authority 'Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe' (BGR), and the Belgian contract area B4S03 of the Belgian company, Global Sea Mineral Resources (GSR). Amplicon sequencing of 16S RNA gene was used to describe bacterial diversity. This dataset is part of second phase JPI Ocean project MiningImpact for assessing the potential impact of mining operation in deep-sea polymetallic nodule deposits.