Effects of CO2 on deep-sea floor microbial communities

Abstract

It has been widely recognized that a substantial rise of carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration in the atmosphere causes global climate change. In an effort to reduce the future atmospheric CO2, some technological mitigation strategies have been proposed. On the basis of detailed investigations to, it has been recognized that the CO2 sequestration in the ocean is one of the promising option from the points of view of its capacity, economy, and effectiveness. Benthic chamber experiment is conducted to investigate the impact of CO2 injection on deep-sea microbial ecosystem. In the experiment, the impact of CO2 and CO2-induced pH change on deep-sea floor microbial communities are investigated to determine the ecological effects by CO2 ocean sequestration. Microbial communities are characterized by using cultivation-independent molecular techniques—PCR (polymerase chain reaction)-based denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DOGE). A shift in community composition caused by CO2 enrichment is observed in sea-floor surface. To determine relationships among the community fingerprints, similarities are calculated and unweighted pair group clustering method with arithmetic averages is used to create a dendrogram describing pattern similarities.