Geographic Distribution of Ammonia-Oxidizing Archaea along the Kuril Islands in the Western Subarctic Pacific.

Community composition and abundance of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) in the ocean were affected by different physicochemical conditions, but their responses to physical barriers (such as a chain of islands) were largely unknown. In our study, geographic distribution of the AOA from the surface photic zone to the deep bathypelagic waters in the western subarctic Pacific adjacent to the Kuril Islands was investigated using pyrosequencing based on the ammonia monooxygenase subunit A () gene. Genotypes of clusters A and B dominated in the upper euphotic zone and the deep waters, respectively.