Seasonal and spatial distribution of ammonia-oxidizing microorganism communities in surface sediments from the East China Sea

Ammonia oxidation plays a significant role in the nitrogen cycle in marine sediments. Seasonal and spatial distribution of ammonia-oxidizing archaea(AOA) and betaproteobacteria(β-AOB) in surface sediments from the East China Sea(ECS) were investigated using ammonia monooxygenase α subunit(amo A) gene. In order to characterize the community of AOA and β-AOB, real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction(q PCR) was carried out in this study, along with environmental parameters. The abundance of β-AOB amo A gene(2.17×106–4.54×107 copy numbers per gram wet weight sediment) was always greater than that of AOA amo A gene(2.18×105–9.89×106 copy numbers per gram wet weight sediment) in all sampling stations. The q PCR results were correlated with environmental parameters. AOA amo A gene copy numbers in April were positively related to temperature and nitrite concentration(p<0.05). β-AOB amo A gene copy numbers in August correlated negatively with salinity(p<0.01), and correlated positively with ammonium concentration(p<0.05). With the increase of salinity, the amo A gene copy ratio of AOB to AOA had a tendency to decrease, which suggested β-AOB dominated in the area of high level ammonium and AOA preferred high salinity area.