Bacterial Communities in the East African Coastal Waters of the Indian Ocean

ABSTRACT Presently, very sparse information exists about the occurrences and diversity of microbes in the western Indian Ocean (WIO) relative to other areas of the ocean. In this study, high‐throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA genes and metagenomic approaches were utilised to examine microbial assemblages in Kenya and Tanzania. Results from 24 locations showed that Proteobacterial members made up the majority of the bacterial assemblages. Other dominant phyla were Bacteroidetes (9%–10%), Firmicutes (1.4%–8%), Actinobacteria (4%–6%) and Acidobacter (3.4%–3.6%). Combinations of diversity (alpha and beta) as well as Pearson correlation analyses showed that assemblages in Kenya clustered together and differed from those in Tanzania because of covariation with various environmental factors, such as temperature and salinity.