A Gram-negative, oxidase- and catalase-positive, moderately halophilic strain, designated YCSA40(T), was isolated from sediment of Daqiao saltern in Qingdao, on the east coast of China. Growth occurred at 10-45 degrees C, at pH 5-9 and with 1-15% NaCl. Strain YCSA40(T) showed the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to Marinobacter segnicrescens SS01 1B1-4(T) (97 %) and M. gudaonensis SL014B61A(T) (96.9 %) and 16S rRNA gene sequence phylogenetic analysis assigned the isolate to the genus Marinobacter. Strain YCSA40(T) contained C-18:1 omega 9c (34.8%), C-16 : 0 (11.6 %), C-19 : 0 cyclo omega 10c/C-19 :1 omega 6C (10.5 %), C-16:1 omega 9c (8.4 %), C-17:0 (6.3 %) and C-12:0 3-OH (5.8%) as the predominant fatty acids. The DNA G+C content was 60.8 mol% and the major ubiquinone was Q-9. These chemotaxonomic characters were all consistent with membership of the genus Marinobacter. DNA-DNA relatedness between the isolate and M. segnicrescens CGMCC 1.6489(T), M. gudaonensis CGMCC 1.6294(T) and other type strains of species of the genus Marinobacter was <= 30%. On the basis of the aforementioned data, it was concluded that strain YCSA40(T) represents a novel species of the genus Marinobacter, for which the name Marinobacter daqiaonensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is YCSA40(T) (=CGMCC 1.9167(T) =NCCB 100308(T) =LMG 25365(T)).