Whole-round core (WRC) samples from ODP Leg 207 were shipped in anaerobic bags on ice to the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) in Hannover, Germany. Within 3 months of sampling, subsamples were fixed for AODC and CARD-FISH analysis. After removal of the ~1-cm contaminated surface layer with a sterile scalpel, a subsample from the centermost part of each WRC was taken with either a sterile scalpel or a sterile cut syringe. Immediately, 0.5 cm3 of material was fixed and stored in ethanol:phosphate buffer solution (1:1) at –20°C until further analysis (Ravenschlag et al., 2001). CARD-FISH was applied on filters following a previously described protocol for marine bacteria (Pernthaler et al., 2002; Schippers et al., 2005). For each sample, the filter was cut into sections that were used for hybridization, targeting archaea (probe ARCH915), bacteria (probe EUB338), or no cells (probe NON338 as negative control) (Ravenschlag et al., 2001).