Cheng, Bingran2014-02-202014-02-202013http://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/12867Members of Archaea are important microbes in various marine and terrestrial habitats, yet we know little about their distribution patterns. In this study, we combined culture-independent analyses with geochemical measurements to investigate the archaeal communities from sediments at five sites in Delaware coastal areas, including the Great Marsh, Inland Bays and three sites in the Broadkill River. Delaware sediments housed 158 archaeal operational taxonomic units, including ubiquitous mesophilic groups and close relatives of deep biosphere taxa. The distributions of these archaeal groups were different among sites. However, community structure was generally constant throughout all depths within each site. This suggests site selection of the microbial communities, and a high level of vertical relatedness within the sediments.Archaeal diversityShallow marine sediment16S rRNA clone libraryCatalyzed reporter deposition fluorescence in situ hybridization (CARD-FISH)Thesis