Page 3 - Preprint_2014_2

45° Congresso della Società Italiana di Biologia Marina
Venezia, 19-23 maggio 2014
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taxa, with a large dominance of members from the classes of Alphaproteobacteria and
Gammaproteobacteria, including several marine taxa as Oceanosprillales,
Halomonadaceae, and Erytrobacteriaceae (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1 - Representation of the taxonomic composition of Proteobacteria in Sardinian sandy beaches.
The different Proteobacteria classes, orders, and families are reported.
Rappresentazione della composizione tassonomica dei Proteobacteria nelle spiagge sarde
con indicate le famiglie, ordini e classi di Proteobacteria identificati.

Conclusions - A seasonal pattern in the levels of biodiversity was detected, with a
sharp increase in taxonomic richness values in the spring season and a decline during
late summer/autumn, possibly due to corresponding fluctuations of organic carbon in
the sediments in relation to winter and spring storms. Concerning the taxonomic
composition, presence of a large fraction of bacterial taxa related to the marine
environment was found, as well as of ammonia oxidizing taxa, as was already detected
for supralittoral sediments of Favignana Island (Bacci et al., in press). Further analyses
are needed to analyze the taxa most affected in relation to the seasonal change and
define the functional activities carried out by the sandy beach microbiome.

References
BACCI G., PAGOTO E., PASSAPONTI M., VANNOCCI P., UGOLINI A., MENGONI A. (in
press) - Composition of supralittoral sediments bacterial communities in a Mediterranean island.
Annals of Microbiology.
MENGONI A., FOCARDI A., BACCI G., UGOLINI A. (2013) - High genetic diversity and
variability of bacterial communities associated with the sandhopper Talitrus saltator (Montagu)
(Crustacea, Amphipoda). Estuar. Coast. Shelf S., 131: 75-82.
MENGONI A., GIUNTINI E., BAZZICALUPO M. (2007) - Application of Terminal-Restriction
Fragment Length Polymorphism (T-RFLP) for Molecular Analysis of Soil Bacterial Communities. In:
Varma A. (ed), Advanced Techniques in Soil Microbiology. Springer, New-York: 295-305.

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