Protist Diversity and Seasonal Dynamics in Skagerrak Plankton Communities as Revealed by Metabarcoding and Microscopy.

ABSTRACT: Protist community composition and seasonal dynamics are of major importance for the production of higher trophic levels, such as zooplankton and fish. Our aim was to reveal how the protist community in the Skagerrak changes through the seasons by combining high-throughput sequencing and microscopy of plankton collected monthly over two years. The V4 region of the 18S rRNA gene was amplified by eukaryote universal primers from the total RNA/cDNA. We found a strong seasonal variation in protist composition and proportional abundances, and a difference between two depths within the euphotic zone. Highest protist richness was found in late summer-early autumn, and lowest in winter. Temperature was the abiotic factor explaining most of the variation in diversity. Dinoflagellates was the most ab

SUBMITTER: Gran-Stadniczenko S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6587730 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature