Matéo Léger-Pigout, Elisabeth Navarro, Frédéric Ménard, Sandrine Ruitton, François Le Loc'h, Sophie Guasco, Jean-Marie Munaron, Delphine Thibault, Thomas Changeux, Solène Connan, Valérie Stiger-Pouvreau, Thierry Thibaut, Valérie Michotey
Since 2011, the Caribbean coasts have been subject to episodic influxes of floating Sargassum seaweed of unprecedented magnitude originating from a new area "the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt" (GASB), leading in episodic influxes and mass strandings of floating Sargassum. For the biofilm of both holopelagic and benthic Sargassum as well as in the surrounding waters, we characterized the main functional groups involved in the microbial nitrogen cycle. The abundance of genes representing nitrogen fixation (nifH), nitrification (amoA), and denitrification (nosZ) showed the predominance of diazotrophs, particularly within the GASB and the Sargasso Sea...
January 8, 2024: ISME Journal