Sediment Core DNA-Metabarcoding and Chitinous Remain Identification: Integrating Complementary Methods to Characterise Chironomidae Biodiversity in Lake Sediment Archives.

ABSTRACT: Chironomidae, so-called non-biting midges, are considered key bioindicators of aquatic ecosystem variability. Data derived from morphologically identifying their chitinous remains in sediments document chironomid larvae assemblages, which are studied to reconstruct ecosystem changes over time. Recent developments in sedimentary DNA (sedDNA) research have demonstrated that molecular techniques are suitable for determining past and present occurrences of organisms. Nevertheless, sedDNA records documenting alterations in chironomid assemblages remain largely unexplored. To close this gap, we examined the applicability of sedDNA metabarcoding to identify Chironomidae assemblages in lake sediments by sampling and processing three 21-35 cm long sediment cores from Lake Sempach in Switzerland. Wi

SUBMITTER: Blattner LA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11646301 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature