Macroecological patterns are found in animals and plants, but also in micro-organisms.Macroecological and biogeographic distribution patterns in marine Archaea, however,have not been studied yet. Ammonia-oxidizing Archaea (AOA) show a bipolar distribution(i.e. similar communities in the northernmost and the southernmost locations,separated by distinct communities in the tropical and gyral regions) throughout theAtlantic, detectable from epipelagic to upper bathypelagic layers (<2000 m depth). Thistentatively suggests an influence of the epipelagic conditions of organic matter productionon bathypelagic AOA communities. The AOA communities below 2000 m depthshowed a less pronounced biogeographic distribution pattern than the upper 2000 mwater column. Overall, AOA in the surface and deep Atlantic waters exhibit distance–decay relationships and follow the Rapoport rule in a similar way as bacterial communitiesand macroorganisms. This indicates a major role of environmental conditions inshaping the community composition and assembly (species sorting) and no, or onlyweak limits for dispersal in the oceanic thaumarchaeal communities. However, there isindication of a different strength of these relationships between AOA and Bacteria,linked to the intrinsic differences between these two domains. |
