High planktonic diversity in mountain lakes contains similar contributions of autotrophic, heterotrophic and parasitic eukaryotic life forms.

ABSTRACT: A rich eukaryotic planktonic community exists in high-mountain lakes despite the diluted, oligotrophic and cold, harsh prevailing conditions. Attempts of an overarching appraisal have been traditionally hampered by observational limitations of small, colorless, and soft eukaryotes. We aimed to uncover the regional eukaryotic biodiversity of a mountain lakes district to obtain general conclusions on diversity patterns, dominance, geographic diversification, and food-web players common to oligotrophic worldwide distributed freshwater systems. An unprecedented survey of 227 high-altitude lakes comprising large environmental gradients was carried out using Illumina massive tag sequencing of the 18S rRNA gene. We observed a large Chrysophyceae dominance in richness, abundance and novelty, and u

SUBMITTER: Ortiz-Alvarez R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5849755 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature