Department of Integrative Biology

There have been few studies of the bacterial community within the bottom boundary layer (BBL)-the turbulent region of the water column above the benthos-in shallow seas. Typically, the BBL has large amounts of particulate organic matter suspended by turbulence, and it is often the first region of the water column to become hypoxic when oxygen declines. Communities at the surface (5 m) and in the BBL (1 to 10 m above the sea floor) were compared by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis and sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. Multivariate statistical methods (hierarchical clustering, non-metric multidimensional scaling, and analysis of similarity (ANOSIM)) indicated that the microbial community of the BBL is distinct from the surface community. ANOSIM supported the distinction between surface and BBLs (R values 0.427 and 0.463, based on analysis with restriction enzymes BsuR1 and Hin6I, respectively, p