Microbial community from a microbial mat isolated from gray whale carcass in the Santa Cruz Basin. whale fall metagenome

Whale carcasses on the sea floor are a rich source of organic matter for the organisms that inhabit the ocean depths. Tubeworms, mollusks, and crustaceans, similar to those found at hydrothermal vents, colonize these whale falls. Sulfate-reducing bacteria oxidize the organic matter, particularly the lipid-rich skeleton, producing sulfide that chemosynthetic microorganisms use for energy. These chemosynthetic microorganisms form the base of the food chain and, as symbionts, supply energy for the fauna on the whale carcass. This sample was obtained from a microbial mat from gray whale carcass at a depth of 1674 meters in the Santa Cruz Basin of the Pacific Ocean (N33.30 W119.22). The WGS project and sequences deposited into the Trace Archive can be found using the Project data link.