Trophic State Drives the Diversity of Protists in a Tropical River (New River, Belize).

ABSTRACT: Land use disrupts the ecosystem functioning of freshwater systems and significantly affects trophic state. Consequently, biodiversity is severely affected by changes to the ecosystem. Microbial eukaryotes (i.e., protists) play an essential role in ecosystem functioning, contributing to biogeochemical processes, nutrient cycling, and food webs. Protist composition is a useful biological quality parameter for monitoring aquatic ecosystems and determining aquatic system health. In this study, we investigated the effects of land usage and trophic state on the communities of microbial eukaryotes in the New River (Belize, C.A.). Land use and trophic state both significantly affected protist community compositions, with impacted and mesotrophic sampled sites having higher biodiversity when compar

SUBMITTER: Barbosa M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9782246 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature