Here you can see the spatial distribution of total OTUs (operational taxonomic units, a molecular stand-in for “species”) and diatom and animal eDNA over the Chukchi Sea in the upper water column (~5 meters) and the lower water column (~35 meters). The overall diversity is at least thousands of molecular “species” at each station.
Microbial Species Distributions
Image courtesy of the Mapping the Uncharted Diversity of Arctic Marine Microbes expedition. Download larger version (jpg, 655 KB).

Here you can see the spatial distribution of total OTUs (operational taxonomic units, a molecular stand-in for “species”) and diatom and animal eDNA over the Chukchi Sea in the upper water column (~5 meters) and the lower water column (~35 meters). The overall diversity is at least thousands of molecular “species” at each station. Nitrosopumilus is an archaeon that converts ammonia to nitrite, and Nitrospina is a bacterium that converts nitrite to nitrate, which can be used by phytoplankton for growth.

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