Coastal shelf sediments host microbial communities that drive key nitrogen, sulfur and carbon transformations, yet the factors structuring these communities and their metabolic capabilities in the Belgian part of the North Sea remain poorly characterized. This study used shotgun metagenomics to investigate the microbial taxonomic composition and metabolic potential of sediments collected from four stations with contrasting sediment types sampled over five seasonal campaigns. Across three biogeochemical cycles, sediment type rather than sampling month was the primary driver of both taxonomic and functional gene profiles. Eight phyla, including Bacteroidota, Chloroflexota, Thermodesulfobactriota and Verrucomicrobiota, increased systematically from coarse sand towards muddy sediments, while Nitrososphaerota, Myxococcota, Actinomycetota and Planctomycetota showed opposite trend. The coarse sandy station 330 was characterized by aerobic and oxidative processes with the muddy station 130 emerging as a hotspot where nitrogen, sulfur and carbon cycling intersect through coupled sulfate-reducing, diazotrophic and methane-cycling communities. Genome-resolved analysis recovered 72 high-quality metagenome-assembled genomes, of which 36% formed a core community shared across all stations, indicating widespread occurrence of certain phyla and a small fraction which is habitat specific. To our knowledge, this study represents the first systematic characterization of metabolic potential of microbial communities in Belgian part of the North Sea sediments, establishing a novel link between their taxonomic composition and functional profiles.
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