Diversity of Pico- to Mesoplankton along the 2000 km Salinity Gradient of the Baltic Sea.

ABSTRACT: Microbial plankton form the productive base of both marine and freshwater ecosystems and are key drivers of global biogeochemical cycles of carbon and nutrients. Plankton diversity is immense with representations from all major phyla within the three domains of life. So far, plankton monitoring has mainly been based on microscopic identification, which has limited sensitivity and reproducibility, not least because of the numerical majority of plankton being unidentifiable under the light microscope. High-throughput sequencing of taxonomic marker genes offers a means to identify taxa inaccessible by traditional methods; thus, recent studies have unveiled an extensive previously unknown diversity of plankton. Here, we conducted ultra-deep Illumina sequencing (average 10(5) sequences/sample)

SUBMITTER: Hu YO 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4864665 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature