[1] Previous studies have provided evidence that dark inorganic carbon fixation is an important process for the functioning of the ocean interior. However, its quantitative relevance and ecological significance in benthic deep-sea ecosystems remain unknown. We investigated the rates of inorganic carbon fixation together with prokaryotic abundance, biomass, assemblage composition, and heterotrophic carbon production in surface sediments of different benthic deep-sea systems along the Iberian margin (northeastern Atlantic Ocean) and in the Mediterranean Sea. Inorganic carbon fixation rates in these surface deep-sea sediments did not show clear depth-related patterns, and, on average, they accounted for 19% of the total heterotrophic biomass production. The incorporation rates of inorganic carbon were significantly related to the abundance of total Archaea (as determined by catalyzed reporter deposition fluorescence in situ hybridization) and completely inhibited using an inhibitor of archaeal metabolism, N 1 -guanyl-1,7-diaminoheptane. This suggests a major role of the archaeal assemblages in inorganic carbon fixation. We also show that benthic archaeal assemblages contribute approximately 25% of the total 3 H-leucine incorporation. Inorganic carbon fixation in surface deep-sea sediments appears to be dependent not only upon chemosynthetic processes but also on heterotrophic/mixotrophic metabolism, as suggested by estimates of the chemolithotrophic energy requirements and the enhanced inorganic carbon fixation due to the increase in the availability of organic trophic resources. Overall, our data suggest that archaeal assemblages of surface deep-sea sediments are responsible for the high rates of inorganic carbon incorporation and thereby sustain the functioning of the food webs as well as influence the carbon cycling of benthic deep-sea ecosystems.Citation: Molari, M., E. Manini, and A. Dell'Anno (2013), Dark inorganic carbon fixation sustains the functioning of benthic deep-sea ecosystems, Global Biogeochem. Cycles, 27, 212-221,

Benthic deep-sea archaea are mainly controlled by temperature, whereas bacteria are controlled by food availability.

Microbial communities of the Arctic Ocean are poorly characterized in comparison to other aquatic environments as to their horizontal, vertical, and temporal turnover. Yet, recent studies showed that the Arctic marine ecosystem harbors unique microbial community members that are adapted to harsh environmental conditions, such as near-freezing temperatures and extreme seasonality. The gene for the small ribosomal subunit (16S rRNA) is commonly used to study the taxonomic composition of microbial communities in their natural environment. Several primer sets for this marker gene have been extensively tested across various sample sets, but these typically originated from low-latitude environments. An explicit evaluation of primer-set performances in representing the microbial communities of the Arctic Ocean is currently lacking. To select a suitable primer set for studying microbiomes of various Arctic marine habitats (sea ice, surface water, marine snow, deep ocean basin, and deep-sea sediment), we have conducted a performance comparison between two widely used primer sets, targeting different hypervariable regions of the 16S rRNA gene (V3–V4 and V4–V5). We observed that both primer sets were highly similar in representing the total microbial community composition down to genus rank, which was also confirmed independently by subgroup-specific catalyzed reporter deposition-fluorescence in situ hybridization (CARD-FISH) counts. Each primer set revealed higher internal diversity within certain bacterial taxonomic groups (e.g., the class Bacteroidia by V3–V4, and the phylum Planctomycetes by V4–V5). However, the V4–V5 primer set provides concurrent coverage of the archaeal domain, a relevant component comprising 10–20% of the community in Arctic deep waters and the sediment. Although both primer sets perform similarly, we suggest the use of the V4–V5 primer set for the integration of both bacterial and archaeal community dynamics in the Arctic marine environment.