1 Characterization of particle-associated and free-living bacterial and 2 archaeal communities along the water columns of the South China Sea 3 4 Jiangtao Lia, Lingyuan Gua, Shijie Baib, Jie Wang c, Lei Sua, Bingbing Weia, Li Zhangd and Jiasong Fange,f,g * 5 6 aState Key Laboratory of Marine Geology, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China; 7 b Institute of Deep-Sea Science and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Sanya, China; 8 cCollege of Marine Science, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, China; 9 dSchool of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China; 10 eThe Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Hadal Science and Technology, Shanghai Ocean University, 11 Shanghai 201306, China; 12 fLaboratory for Marine Biology and Biotechnology, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and 13 Technology, Qingdao 266237, China; 14 gDepartment of Natural Sciences, Hawaii Pacific University, Kaneohe, HI 96744, USA. 15 16 *Corresponding author:
[email protected] 1 17 Abstract 18 There is a growing recognition of the role of particle-attached (PA) and free-living (FL) microorganisms in 19 marine carbon cycle. However, current understanding of PA and FL microbial communities is largely on 20 those in the upper photic zone, and relatively fewer studies have focused on microbial communities of the 21 deep ocean. Moreover, archaeal populations receive even less attention. In this study, we determined 22 bacterial and archaeal community structures of both the PA and FL assemblages at different depths, from the 23 surface to the bathypelagic zone along two water column profiles in the South China Sea. Our results suggest 24 that environmental parameters including depth, seawater age, salinity, POC, DOC, DO and silicate play a 25 role in structuring these microbial communities.