the deep-sea seafloor sediment Raw sequence reads. the deep-sea seafloor sediment

Large amounts of volcanic ash deposition into the oceans frequently took place throughout much of the Earth’s history. However, their potential effects on deep-sea seabed biogeochemical metal cycle remains enigmatic. In this study, we firstly reported the microbial community and functional compositions in the sediment core bearing tephra layers from Yap trench. The results showed that volcanic activity would import Fe-rich dark minerals, such as olivine, pyroxene, hornblende, biotite, and ilmenite, as well as Fe-rich clay mineral chlorite, into the trench sedimentary environments. Corresponding, a significant proportion of potential Fe-metabolizing bacteria, such as Pseudomonas, Alteromonas, Marinobacter, Halomonas, Pseudoalteromonas, were detected in this study, especially in the tephra layer. Moreover, compared with the reference sample, metagenome from the tephra layer were enriched in pathways for Fe3+ uptake, siderophore synthesis and uptake, and Fe transport, as well as other metal-related function genes. Based on these results, it can be inferred that the volcanic ash can lead the changes of microbial community and ecological function composition in the trench sedimentary environments, and further stimulate the deep-sea metal biogeochemical cycle.