Between July 2013 and April 2015, 1019 aqueous samples were collected from 974 geothermal features within 18 geothermal fields in the TVZ. A 3 L water column sample was taken (to 1 m depth where possible) from each geothermal spring, lake, stream, or the catchment pool of geysers for microbial and chemical analyses. Samples were collected either at the centre of the feature or at ~3 m from the edge to target well-mixed and/or more representative samples, depending on safety and size of the spring. Comprehensive physical and chemical measurements, and field observational metadata were recorded contemporaneously with a custom-built application and automatically uploaded to a database (Supplementary Table
7). All samples were filtered within 2 h of collection and stored accordingly. Total DNA was extracted using a modified CTAB method
59 (link) with the PowerMag Microbial DNA Isolation Kit using SwiftMag technology (MoBio Laboratories, Carlsbad, CA, USA). The V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was amplified in triplicate using universal Earth Microbiome Project
44 (link) primers F515 (5′-GTGCCAGCMGCCGCGGTAA-3′) and R806 (5′-GGACTACVSGGGTATCTAAT-3′), details of which can be found in Supplementary Methods. SPRIselect (Beckman Coulter, Brea, CA, USA) was used to purify DNA following amplification. Amplicon sequencing was performed using the Ion PGM System for Next-Generation Sequencing with the Ion 318v2 Chip and Ion PGM Sequencing 400 Kits (ThermoFisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA).
Forty-six separate physicochemical parameters were determined for each geothermal spring sample collected. Inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to determine the concentrations of aqueous metals and non-metals (31 species; a full list is provided in Supplementary Table 7), and various UV–vis spectrometry methods were used to determine aqueous nitrogen species (
,
,
), Fe
2+, and
, with H
2S,
, and Cl
− determined via titration, and SO
42– concentration measured via ion chromatography (IC). COND, dO, ORP, pH, and TURB were determined using a Hanna Instruments (Woonsocket, RI, USA) multiparameter fieldmeter at room temperature. Spring temperature (TEMP) was measured in situ immediately after sampling, using a Fluke 51-II thermocouple (Fluke, Everett, WA, USA).
Expanded details on sampling procedures, sample processing, and protocols for DNA extraction, DNA amplification, and chemical analyses can be found in Supplementary Methods and Supplementary Table
7.
Power J.F., Carere C.R., Lee C.K., Wakerley G.L., Evans D.W., Button M., White D., Climo M.D., Hinze A.M., Morgan X.C., McDonald I.R., Cary S.C, & Stott M.B. (2018). Microbial biogeography of 925 geothermal springs in New Zealand. Nature Communications, 9, 2876.