"Tara Oceans systematically collected ~35,000 samples for morphological, genetic, and environmental analyses using standardized protocols across multiple depths at global scale, aiming to facilitate a holistic study on how environmental factors and biogeochemical cycles affect oceanic life." (1) "For each prokaryote-enriched sample (N=139), we extracted metagenomic merged Illumina reads (miTAGs) that contained signatures of the 16S rRNA gene (Logares et al. 2013). These fragments were mapped to a set of 16S reference sequences that were downloaded from the SILVA database (Release 115: Quast et al. 2013) and clustered into 97% operational taxonomic units. The OTU count table was summarized at different taxonomic levels." (2) (1): https://www-science-org.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/doi/full/10.1126/science.1261359 (2): http://ocean-microbiome.embl.de/companion.html