Kelp forest microbial diversity

Kelp forest ecosystems are biodiversity hotspots, providing habitat for dense assemblages of marine organisms and an important source of energy and nutrients for both marine and terrestrial food webs. The surfaces of kelps support diverse microbial communities that are essential for the growth and development of their hosts, and for facilitating the transfer of carbon from algal primary production to higher trophic levels. We quantified the diversity and distribution of bacterial communities present on the surfaces of eight sympatric species of kelp from four sites on the central coast of British Columbia. Patterns of host-asscoiated microbial diversity were compared with samples collected from seawater and rocky substrate. This study is among the first to quantify the distribution of microbial diversity across sympatric species within kelp forests, providing an additional level of data towards a more comprehensive understanding of these ecologically important habitats.