Low taxon richness of bacterioplankton in high-altitude lakes of the eastern tibetan plateau, with a predominance of Bacteroidetes and Synechococcus spp.

ABSTRACT: Plankton samples were collected from six remote freshwater and saline lakes located at altitudes of 3,204 to 4,718 m and 1,000 km apart within an area of ca. 1 million km(2) on the eastern Tibetan Plateau to comparatively assess how environmental factors influence the diversity of bacterial communities in high-altitude lakes. The composition of the bacterioplankton was investigated by analysis of large clone libraries of 16S rRNA genes. Comparison of bacterioplankton diversities estimated for the six Tibetan lakes with reference data previously published for lakes located at lower altitudes indicated relatively low taxon richness in the Tibetan lakes. The estimated average taxon richness in the four Tibetan freshwater lakes was only one-fifth of the average taxon richness estimated for sev

SUBMITTER: Xing P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2786500 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature