Marine Bacterial Richness Along a 2500 km Transect in the Eastern Indian Ocean

A 2500 km transect in the eastern Indian Ocean measured bacterial richness increasing from 800 to 1400 OTUs (a 42% increase) towards higher latitudes. The dataset, produced by Eric J. Raes of the Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, links this increase to primary productivity, nitrogen levels, and phytoplankton community structure. It provides evidence supporting the productivity mechanism for marine microbial diversity gradients.

Use Cases

• Modeling latitudinal gradients in marine microbial diversity based on richness and environmental correlates.
• Investigating the relationship between primary productivity and bacterial community structure.
• Analyzing the diversity of nitrogen-fixing genes (nifH) in heterotrophic proteobacteria.
• Testing ecological hypotheses about temperature versus productivity as drivers of marine diversity.

Strengths

• Data covers a significant 2500 km transect providing spatial gradient analysis.
• Richness measurements show a statistically significant 42% increase (r2=0.65, p<0.001).
• Analysis integrates multiple correlated factors: dissolved inorganic nitrogen, chlorophyll a, phytoplankton structure, and primary productivity.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung

Collection Method

High throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene from surface water samples.

Geography

Eastern Indian Ocean, along the West Australian boundary current (Leeuwin Current).