In the past decade, thousands of previously unknown methane seeps have been identified on continental margins around the world. As we have come to appreciate methane seep habitats to be abundant components of marine ecosystems, we have also realized they are highly dynamic in nature. With a focus on discrete depth ranges across the Cascadia Margin, we work to further unravel the drivers of seep‐associated microbial community structure. We found highly heterogenous environments, with depth as a deterministic factor in community structure. This was associated with multiple variables that covaried with depth, including surface production, prevailing oxygen minimum zones (OMZs), and geologic and hydrographic context. Development of megafaunal seep communities appeared limited in shallow depth zones (~ 200 m). However, this effect did not extend to the structure or function of microbial communities. Siboglinid tubeworms were restricted to water depths > 1000 m, and we posit this deep distribution is driven by the prevailing OMZ limiting dispersal. Microbial community composition and distribution covaried most significantly with depth, but variables including oxygen concentration, habitat type, and organic matter, as well as iron and methane concentration, also explained the distribution of the microbial seep taxa. While members of the core seep microbiome were seen across sites, there was a high abundance of microbial taxa not previously considered within the seep microbiome as well. Our work highlights the multifaceted aspects that drive community composition beyond localized methane flux and depth, where environmental diversity adds to margin biodiversity in seep systems.

中文翻译：

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无处不在但独特：水深和海洋学属性塑造甲烷渗漏群落

在过去的十年中，在世界各地的大陆边缘发现了数千个以前未知的甲烷渗漏点。当我们认识到甲烷渗透栖息地是海洋生态系统的丰富组成部分时，我们也意识到它们本质上是高度动态的。我们重点关注卡斯卡迪亚边缘的离散深度范围，努力进一步揭示渗漏相关微生物群落结构的驱动因素。我们发现高度异质的环境，深度是群落结构的决定性因素。这与与深度共变的多个变量有关，包括地表产量、普遍含氧量最低区 (OMZ) 以及地质和水文背景。巨型动物渗流群落的发展在浅层区域（~ 200 m）似乎受到限制。然而，这种影响并没有扩展到微生物群落的结构或功能。 Siboglinid 管虫仅限于 > 1000 m 的水深，我们认为这种深度分布是由普遍的 OMZ 限制扩散驱动的。微生物群落组成和分布随深度的变化最为显着，但氧气浓度、生境类型、有机质以及铁和甲烷浓度等变量也解释了微生物渗漏类群的分布。虽然核心渗流微生物组的成员在各个地点都可见，但渗流微生物组中也存在大量以前未考虑到的微生物类群。我们的工作强调了推动群落组成超越局部甲烷通量和深度的多方面因素，其中环境多样性增加了渗漏系统的边缘生物多样性。