Effects of macrobenthic bioturbation on the abundance and community composition of ammonia-oxidizing prokaryotes under different temperatures.

In order to investigate the effects of macrobenthos on the abundance and community composition of ammonia-oxidizing prokaryotes under different temperature conditions, laboratory microcosms containing two kinds of macrobenthos (Corbicula flumineaandTubificidworms) were constructed. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and clone libraries were applied to analyze the ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and bacteria (AOB) communities in the surface sediments. The lowest abundances of the archaeal and bacterialamoAgene were found in the samples cultured under 28 °C (archaealamoAgene abundance, 2.71 × 106copies/g dry sediment; bacterialamoAgene abundance, 1.17 × 107copies/g dry sediment) of theC. flumineagroup. However, there was no significant difference in terms of the abundance of archaealamoAgene in allTubificidworms treatment groups. Compared to the community composition of AOB, greater variations in the community composition of AOA were observed among the three different temperature groups. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]