Prokaryotic community and diversity in coastal surface waters along the Western Antarctic Peninsula

Identifying microorganisms and defining the community compositions are important for better understanding of the marine ecosystem and biochemical cycles. This study describes microbial community compositions of coastal surface waters of the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP). The V3–V4 regions of 16S rRNA genes were PCR-amplified, and sequencing libraries were constructed to characterize the microbial community. A total of 157 bacteria species were identified and classified into 6 phyla, 50 families, and 91 genera. Whereas only two Archaea taxa of Crenarchaeota and Euryarchaeota, the first report from surface water of the WAP in summer, were identified. Our data showed a prevalence of ubiquitous bacterial phyla of Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes. The dominant bacterial families across all water samples were mostly affiliated with Pseudoalteromonadaceae, and followed by Rhodobacteraceae, Moraxellaceae, and Flavobacteriaceae, which collectively accounted for almost 94% of all the generated sequences. Taxonomic compositions of the sampling sites were similar. However, the relative abundances of bacterial families were considerably varied. Bacterial communities in polar marine environments show strong spatial and temporal variation.